Jailbreak
by MargaritaDaemonelix
Summary: Somewhere in the Hamel archipelago, two young people lie in silence in a ditch. No, they're not dead, but they will be if they speak. Their names are Elsword Sieghart and Aisha Landar, and they are hunting down a demon overlord. Inspired by Neru's Jailbreak. 2017 Nanowrimo project. Part 2 of the Infernal Jukebox series.
1. The City

JAILBREAK

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 1

 _Born in a town that reeks of gasoline, closed off by high walls, we have yet to see as little as the colour of a field_

 **TW: blood and violence. Proceed with caution.**

In the winter of Altera, thirteen thousand years ago, a queen laid herself down to sleep, hoping she would wake up to peace and prosperity.

She woke up to war and fighting and the pressing invasion of eldritch creatures from the void. Alone, she cried, because the successor she'd appointed no longer took commands from her. Alone, she cried, for he had destroyed her people in their prime.

With no way to destroy his regime from the inside, she trained herself to become stronger. She took on the help of two of her kind, ancient and virtually lost to time, and became a queen in her own right. She became a goddess of vengeance, and she returned to her home to avenge her lost people.

And she succeeded. She now sits upon her iron throne, with her empire around her and her best friends at her side. She is a queen of an empire once lost, but now reborn in cold steel. Altera is a strong island empire once more, even if it no longer flies above the rest of the world.

They fortify her iron fortress every day, in preparation for the impending attacks. She builds her army, and they give it their all, whether it is with magic or coding or new armor plating. This is their only way to save this island from doom, after all, with the demons at their doorstep.

The queen may not look like a fighter, but under her dainty, perfect posture and sleek black dress, there lies a steely heart, ready to go down fighting. Once, she was made to be an example to her people. Now, she is their angel of death, protecting them from the harmful influence of the outside world. She is a machine built to kill, and she is proud of it.

Her best friend of all is a boy not unlike her. Considered a prince by his people, he was cast out to sea when the demons attacked his homeland, and has sworn to become stronger to save them once more. She has seen him cry, and she has held him through his tears. Similarly, he has seen her at her weakest, unable to fight or even to move. They are inseparable, and she wouldn't trade him away for the world.

Their two friends are what they call soulmates, the one who they will spend their lives with after years of searching. One is a former noblewoman, whose brother fell from grace and tore their family apart from the inside out. The other is a scientist, a former slave of Altera's merciless past ruler and a man who barely escaped the wrath of the law. They sometimes wander outside in the cold so she can summon the spirits of their predecessors and they can commune with those long gone. They are perfect for each other in every way, and even if no rings bind their fingers together (yet), they are connected at the heart with a vow to protect the other through every life they live.

And yet they are all tired. Fortifying the mechanical soldiers of the empire is one thing, but fighting constant wars against enemies they can't see is starting to take a toll on them. Chung is tired. Ara is tired. Add is tired.

 _Eve is tired of war._

She stands in her workroom, scraps of metal and nuts and bolts falling from her hands like grains of sand. A bolt slips from her fingers, then a chunk of some random machine she stripped down, but she doesn't notice. She is unmoving, unknowing, unfeeling.

 _Eve is tired of all the fighting._

The metal bits clink against her boots as she drops them, but the noise escapes her ears. She wants the demons to stop, if only just for a minute, so she can walk among her people, tell them she has news of peace for the future. She wants there to be peace, like the peace she'd hoped for when she let herself power the future of her empire, thirteen thousand years ago.

 _Eve is tired, not of being queen, but of being cooped up in her iron fortress._

She used to leave in the night to kill, slipping into armor strong enough to protect her from even the strongest sword and magically enchanted to wave off the most terrific incantations. She doesn't have the time to do it anymore, not with an army of her own to raise and fortify. They need her guidance, because she is their queen and their mother and the mother of all Nasod.

 _Eve is tired._

A washer settles snugly on her pinky finger, like a silvery ring signifying her queendom. She does not remove it, but reaches down into the pile of metal scraps at her feet, fills her hands with the shards and bits and pieces, and throws them in the air.

Eve knows the scraps will be suspended in midair due to her (un)natural magnetism. Unless she tells them to go, they will stay floating, unmoving just like her.

"Miss Eve-"

Her concentration shatters instantly. Eve winces as Chung slams the door shut once again, barely managing to shield himself from the explosion of scrap metal. A particularly large piece impales itself in the wall by the door, and one ricochets off her workbench, kicking off a corner, and sticks in the ceiling.

Chung opens the door experimentally. "I'm sorry, miss Eve," he says, eyes wide at the damage. "I should have knocked before I came in."

She shakes her head. "It is not your fault, Chung," she tells him. "I should not have attempted to suspend so much material all at once."

He whistles as he looks over the chunk of metal in the wall. "You should consider harnessing your magnetism for battle," he suggests, reaching over to yank it out in one fluid motion. The wall stands firm, thankfully, as he extracts the fragment. "You could destroy armies with a strategy like what you just did. Oh god, you could even create Nasods on the spot with something like this!"

"Maybe a machine for battle," Eve amends, "but not a Nasod. There is a lot of necessary coding that must be done for the creation of a true Nasod. However, it may be useful on the battlefield as a protective shield, or a weapon in an emergency."

She frowns at the little iron filings that now litter her floor and cover her walls, and the handful that are starting to rain down from the ceiling. "Cleanup will be messy," she admits, wincing. "Please stand by, Chung."

He leaves the room again, closing the door behind him, as she reactivates her magnetism and brings the scraps together into a pile before dropping them all on the ground. "Better to be safe than sorry," he murmurs. "Miss Eve, you don't have to beat yourself up over things like this, y'know."

"My people could be at risk," she reminds him, steely and cold. "Without control over my abilities, how can protect them? It will only result in them being harmed."

Chung steps forwards. She knows what he's about to do, but even if she doesn't understand why he does it, she drops her guard and lets him wrap his arms around her. "I know the feeling," he mumbles. "It was the same during the fall of Hamel. The sense of hopelessness, that you can't do anything to help."

Eve doesn't quite understand "hopelessness". There is always a way for her to help. That way is not always clear, however; the current situation is a perfect example. Instead of pushing Chung away, she sighs, reaching up to awkwardly pat his back.

"I wish there could be peace, Chung."

* * *

Nearly five hundred kilometres away, across the ocean strait, Hamel is not at peace.

Three years ago, when the demons opened the huge portal in the sky above the capital of Senace, Chung was cast out to sea after failing to save his father from the demons. The city was overrun by demons, and Sasha, the resident priestess of the Water El, was forced to run. She almost made it to safety, too, when her entourage was caught by a demon commander, and since then she has not been seen.

Once upon a time, Hamel was beautiful, just like Altera. Where Altera was thriving with exotic plant life and clockwork magic, Hamel was dappled in shining white marble and flowing blue waters. Its people lived under the rule of just leaders for most of its thousand-year history.

What most don't understand that Hamel is known as the _City by the Sea_ for a reason. There are multiple islands off its main coast that contain complex living quarters. Mainland Hamel hosts its military and its palaces, along with its once-beautiful canals and shops. The rest of the islands form an archipelago, one that once housed thousands. There are multiple temples scattered across this archipelago, some that belong to the Elrian faith and some that don't. Hamel had a lot of religious freedom, after all, back before the demons attacked.

Somewhere in the Hamel archipelago, two young people lie in silence in a ditch. No, they're not dead, but they will be if they speak. Their names are Elsword Sieghart and Aisha Landar, and they are hunting down a demon overlord.

Unlike Eve, who is tired of war, Elsword is just tired. He hasn't eaten in a day, hasn't slept in two. The only water they've been able to find lately has been salt water, which, thanks to Aisha's magic, has mostly been a refresher, but she's tired too, and she needs to reserve her magic to fight.

"Can you see the temple?" She whispers, turning her head to face Elsword. "It should be white and blue. Probably has some soot, too."

Elsword winces. "Do you really want me to risk getting my head getting blown off by demons?"

She glares at him. Elsword can feel the exasperation rolling off her in waves. It wouldn't be Aisha without her stern glare, after all. "Look, this entire place is a bloody mess. They see red, they think blood. They see purple, they think "oh wow, let's shoot!" So no, your chances of getting your head blown off by a demon are a little lower than they are for me."

As much as he hates to admit it, she's right, and no amount of whining will change that. Elsword grunts in understanding as he forces himself onto his elbows, keeping his head down as he pushes his way up the side of the ditch.

It's dirty and dumb and Elsword hates it, but Aisha knows what she's doing. He gets to the top, runs a hand over his hair to smooth it down, and peers over the edge.

At first, there's nothing notable in sight. Rocks are strewn all about, bloodied in red and the foul black that Elsword has grown all too used to. The sight and scent used to make him retch, but four years of fighting has desensitized him to the sight and scent of demon innards. The splayed bodies of glitters and demons don't bother him anymore.

He forces himself to focus, and spots the blackened temple in the distance. _The Hall of Water_ , they'd called this temple in particular. It was home to the priestess of Water El in the past before it was overrun. Back then, it had been just as beautiful as the rest of the city. Now, it remains a symbol of the destruction that the demons carry; their blue flags fly in the wind around the temple.

Elsword drops back down into the ditch, skidding down the side and feeling dirt ride up his shirt. "It's about a hundred metres away," he reports. "Pretty beat up, but still intact. Lots of demon flags around it. No sign of any demons, though."

Aish stares at him incredulously, like she can't believe her ears. "It's still intact?" She says, eyes wide. "But the priestess is dead! The energy of the Water El keeping it together should have died off a long time ago. That temple should not be standing."

A little bit of heat rises at the back of Elsword's neck. "Oh, so you sent me up there anyways?" He snorts. "Thanks, Aisha."

She crosses her arms. "Hey, I already told you why I couldn't go," she says. "I couldn't risk sending Angkor up, because they could have recognized him, and you couldn't risk sending Conwell up, because _Conwell is a scabbard!_ "

 _I heard that_ , Conwell hums softly at Elsword's side. _But yes, Elsword. You should listen to her. She seems to have more sense than you when it comes to potentially risky situations like this._

"Thank you for backing me up, Conwell," Aisha says. "As I was _saying_ , the temple should have collapsed long ago, when the priestess was killed. Her energy being dissipated would have caused huge tidal waves to rise up and destroy the temple. It would have flooded the island too."

She pauses, her words suddenly catching up to her. "Wait… How are we even on this island to begin with?"

 _That doesn't matter._ The vibrations from Conwell at Elsword's side travel up his back, but he's gotten used to them. _Something in that temple is keeping it standing, and you_ have _to track it down and destroy it before it comes to destroy you._

Elsword cracks his neck from side to side, working out the sore bits if only for a moment. "Should we serve the dish now, or do you want to add some garnishes?" He snarks, turning to face his companion. "Or should we let them have their dessert early?"

Aisha rolls her eyes at him. "Just attack the fucking temple."

Elsword is not a hitman, as much as they call him one. He is a freedom fighter, having allied with Aisha in the camps of Feita when the demon invasion truly began. Both of them are social outcasts, having found power in seemingly demonic forces - Elsword started following the path of Conwell a year before they reached Feita, and Aisha made her contract with Angkor not long afterwards.

They're really just kids with weapons and more power than they know what do with, in a sense. Elsword is barely eighteen, and Aisha twenty. They were in their teenage years when the invasion began and they were forced to learn to fight for their lives, and for the lives of others.

Back when they were young and full of life and travelling the world, they had a companion with many years of wisdom. She used to get fed up with all their bickering and snap at them when they had their childish arguments. Somewhere out there, she's fighting the same battle on a different battlefield. Neither Elsword nor Aisha have seen or heard from her in five years. She could be dead, and they wouldn't know.

Even though Elsword and Aisha have grown up, they're still kids. Five years of nonstop fighting against the demons has done _nothing_ to change the fact that Elsword called Aisha an old lady when they first met, and that Aisha smacked him over the head with her staff afterwards. They still bicker like kids, and when they bicker, they attract unwanted attention, from demons and townspeople alike.

(A lot of people ask if they're a couple when they bicker. Elsword usually sighs and says "the world would probably end if we were".)

As they climb up the side of the ditch, Elsword hears rustling behind them. "Archers," he announces out loud, hand slinking towards his sword. "Come at us, fuckers."

There's a feral growl that makes the hairs on his skin stand on end, and then a volley of arrows flies through the air. Elsword swings his sword through the air, channeling the energy of Dark El, and grins as a fan of glowing, ethereal blades emerges from the tip to knock the arrows away.

"That's a new one," Aisha comments, thrusting her staff into the air. Immediately, an orb of energy gathers. "Care to share the incantation sometime?"

"Maybe when we're not trying to smoke out the demons," he supplies, watching as her black hole pulls the hidden archers towards their doom. "And remember, we've got to take down at least one of their generals today, otherwise we won't have met our goal for the year."

Aisha finally lets go of the black hole, and it explodes overhead, raining black demon blood and thick, leathery skin over them. A claw drops to the ground, bouncing off rocks with a _pop_ and rolling into the pit. Elsword blinks a bit of blood out of his eyes. "Yikes. Alright, let's get out of the pan and into the fire."

Maybe he's making food jokes because he's tired and hungry, but just the feeling of fighting energizes Elsword. The adrenaline pumping through his blood keeps him on his feet, on the run from demons, and closer to the fallen temple.

As soon as he climbs out of the ditch, there's a war cry in the distance. Elsword has heard enough of these to know that this one means _kill_. He draws his swords and rushes at the incoming demons, a scream on his own tongue.

The moment his own blade connects with a moving body, Elsword whirls into action. It's what he's trained for, after all. He cuts the head off a glitter, mows down another, and stabs the blade of Conwell into the ground. A clear ring of runes surrounds him, each emitting its own smaller blade of Conwell and shooting them skywards. The glitters fall in a wave around him, each pierced through to the tip of its head.

Not far away, Aisha spins around in a wide circle, barely touching her staff as she recites incantations at spitfire speed. She reaches her free hand outwards, fingers glowing, and releases three streams of plasma, twisting and turning with her hand movements to slice the demons around her to pieces. Horrible screeches are emitted from their lips with each searing cut, and Elsword enjoys every moment of the macabre music.

They reconvene at the doors of the temple, which have been knocked down and burned. A large demon flag dangles over the entrance in their stead. "Here's the plan," Aisha whispers. "You go to the altar room. It's the only place large enough for a war council. Hold down the fort until I secure the rest of the building. We'll rendezvous there, and take out the demon generals."

"Why do you always get first pick?" Elsword almost whines. It's too late to argue, though - Aisha has already teleported into the temple, leaving no trace. He sighs and lifts up the flag. As expected, there are demon guards situated inside at every doorway.

Elsword flexes his fingers and gets to work.

After the guards by the door have all been turned to a finely ground demon paste, Elsword steps into the once-beautiful hallway of the Hall of Water. It still is a chilling place, with high ceilings sparkling in blue-tinted marble and an almost eerie sense of danger lurking around the corner.

He closes his eyes and listens. Occasionally the sound of a spell popping rings through the corridor, followed by the death grunt of a demon. That's just Aisha at work, though, so he tunes that out and heads for the soft murmurs coming from what must be the altar room.

There were once six priestesses of El, each a representative of one of the functions of the Holy El. Now, only two are known to be living - the Earth El priestess, Artea Braun, who fled to Velder after the demon invasion, and the Wind El priestess, Anduran Caluso, who sought refuge with her family in Sander. The sisters Darkmoon and Gloria Grimaldi, priestesses of the Moon and Sun El respectively, were killed when Lanox's Mount Flame erupted just the year before. Ignia Mavros, the priestess of the Fire El, has been missing for three years.

The final priestess lies at the bottom of the shallow pool in the altar room. Elsword has seen enough dead bodies in rivers to know that _bodies are supposed to float_. Aisha says it's because bacteria in their stomachs cause bloating and a buildup of carbon dioxide, which makes them float. As someone who associates the word _bacteria_ with _infection_ , he's not too comfortable with this information.

Elsword thinks that Sasha Vasilev, the priestess of the Water El and once resident of this very temple, must have been torn apart for her to sink. As he nears the door of the altar room, the huge gashes across her abdomen only confirm this. The water she is entombed in is red with her blood, and there are chunks of _El knows what_ floating at the top.

It's enough to make any man sick, but Elsword has seen enough of this kind of stuff for a lifetime. Blood doesn't bother him anymore.

There doesn't seem to be any demons around, but to be safe, Elsword opens his palm, letting five little Conwell blades emerge to dance in a circle around him. They won't keep him any safer than he is, but they'll alert him to any danger, which is useful.

He presses his ear to the wall and listens.

" _The nuisances outside are starting to get on my nerves,"_ says a young woman, her voice high and full of false sweetness. " _Maybe I'll go take them out their misery, don't you think, darling?"_

A grunt, this time from someone else. That means there's at least two of them. " _Mmm. Maybe I'll stay for a while, let them come to us,"_ the woman muses. " _It's much more fun baiting the stupid ones. I think we'll have a grand time grinding their bones to dust."_

" _Let them come,"_ her companion says, and Elsword freezes. The other person is undeniably feminine, but her voice is rough, like she's been through a lot of vocal wear and tear. " _I know exactly who's out there, and when they come, I'm going to make them wish they'd never come to Hamel."_

This voice is every bit soothing as it is grating to his ears. The last time he'd heard it was _ten_ _years ago_ , in a small cottage house in Ruben. There's a certain coarseness to this woman's words quite unlike in her youth, a warning signal to those who approach, and for good reason. Elsword knows firsthand how powerful she is.

And yet there's a pit of uncertainty that rests at the bottom of his stomach. If she really is who he thinks she is, then whatever forces standing up against the demons are doomed.

" _How goes the planning for our little attack on Altera?"_ The familiar woman asks, her voice rich but lax. " _Are the troops ready to go at our command?"_

" _Of course, darling,"_ says the other, and Elsword realizes in awe and shock that they must be lovers. A tone like that can only be accompanied by bedroom eyes. " _Two million glitters and one million true demons are on standby. The necromancers are preparing their portals as we speak. The island of Altera falls tomorrow, and soon, Velder and Sander and Bethma and Feita will be ours, too."_

This is it. This is Elsword's chance to absolutely _destroy_ the demon generals that he's been hunting for two years. Something in him hesitates, though, because _that voice_ is all too familiar and Elsword has missed it for too long.

The looming threat of an attack on Altera, and subsequently the rest of Elrios, is too much of a risk to give up hope on.

Elsword grips his swords and rushes into the room, incantation on his lips, pointing his weapons directly at his sister.

* * *

Elsewhere in the Hall of Water, Aisha steps on what remains of a demon's face, using it as leverage to wrench her staff out, and hefts it back over her shoulder. The demon falls to the ground, head cleaved neatly in half and leaking dark blood all over the blue floors. "That's what you get for getting my way," she spits, turning away from the damage.

A lot of the towns she and Elsword visit tell tall tales about her staff, because usually the staff of a mage doesn't involve a large axe blade in the shape of a bat wing. Aisha thinks it's a perfectly good weapon, though sometimes it hurts deep in her heart when people ask if she licks the blood off afterwards.

Angkor often reminds her that the appearance of her clothes, her staff, even her hair, are all for her own good. "You gotta stay fresh," he says. "Besides, with less weighing you down, you'll be more aerodynamic and you won't have to worry about your abysmally sad running speed as much."

Aisha isn't too sure why she puts up with the batty old demon deity, but hey, it gets her some pretty fireworks when she blows stuff up and a boost in her powers, so she's not complaining. She drops her staff against the wall for a moment to reach up and tighten her pigtails, brushing a tuft of hair out of her face along the way. "Now which way?" She mutters.

Her voice echoes through the corridor, carrying over into the void. Something calls back from far away, like a response to her question. It sounds like shrill crying, like that of a small child, but is then joined by soft singing, lilting and free. The crying stops shortly.

She picks her staff back up, hefts it over her shoulder, and shakes her head. The tuft of hair she'd brushed away drops back into her face, and she rolls her eyes. "Time to go," she says out loud, listening intently for the echoes that will bring her to the source of the sounds.

Bats are masters of echolocation, after all. Aisha's patron took a bat as his primary form millennia ago, and after completing her contract with him, she has turned to a lot of his mannerisms on the battlefield. Once, she was squeamish and unable to get her hands dirty. It's why she relied on her magic so much as a young girl.

Years of combat, and a few more as the chosen of Angkor, have given her the same resilience that haunts Elsword. They plow through armies of demons without batting an eye, and simply wash the blood off afterwards. It doesn't matter that they leave fields stained dark with the blood of demons afterwards. They have to keep doing it, just to keep surviving.

It's quite unfair that they had to grow up so quickly. She had wanted to travel the world with her friends, once upon a blissful time.

Aisha sticks close to the wall, staff at the ready, when she finally locates the source of the singing. It has to be a sprite singing, that much is clear, but the crying voice remains unidentified. The two voices melt together, song eventually drowning out scream, when she nears the room they're coming from.

She peers through a crack between the (still intact!) wooden doors. As expected, a Laguz sits singing, eyes closed as she pours out the haunting music of her people.

What really surprises Aisha is what the Laguz is doing aside from her singing. Her chair is next to a strange box-like contraption, which she rocks lightly as she sings. The box is decorated in blue like every other thing in the temple, but a little train of starfish and seashells garnishes its side, and what seems like fabric pokes over the edge.

Aisha realizes with a start that it's not a box, _it's a cradle_ , and there is a baby inside. She backs away from the door for a moment, hand over her chest, and allows herself to exhale.

There are two possibilities. One, the child is human, in which case why would the demons be caring for a human child? Maybe they're trying to raise a spy? It doesn't make sense that they'd save a child of the people they're trying to destroy, anyways.

The second possibility is that the child is a demon, which is almost just as unlikely. Demons rear their young in their homeland, another dimension yet to be located. There's very little chance that the demon generals could have had a child either, since none of them have been absent for long periods of time.

(It could be an elf child, or a Ponggo child, she thinks, and fails to take to heart.)

In either case, the baby cannot stay here, in the hands of the demons. The temple is slowly collapsing, there are demons everywhere, and even she is separating this demon from its parents, she's really doing it a favour, right?

Aisha takes a deep breath, raises her staff, and swings it at the door like a baseball bat.

The wing blade smashes right through the wood, which - like she'd been expecting - is rotten and disintegrating. The Laguz's song is cut brutally short with a shriek of surprise as she barrels through, globes of dark energy flowing out of her staff. "Step away from the child," she snarls, letting her weapon crash to the ground.

A shockwave rises from beneath the impact point, headed directly under the Laguz. As she blows out a train of freezing bubbles, Aisha finishes her incantation. From deep beneath the island, a jagged stone emerges, piercing through the Laguz and sending her shredded body up in every which direction. She lets out a final scream, her dying curse, and bursts into a bubble of water.

Aisha has been hit by enough sprite curses to know not to get near a sprite while they're dying, but it's still too close to the cradle. She lunges for the cradle and shields it with her body just as the bubble reaches it.

She opens her eyes experimentally. The bubble of water around her, holding her down, seems to have just missed the baby, who is most certainly human. Tiny tufts of dark blue hair line her forehead, and her skin is pale and peachy, just like a human baby should be. Her grey eyes are open and filled with tears and terror.

Aisha waits for the Laguz's bubble to fade in patience. She's gotten good at holding her breath, after all, and she can wait it out for a while. After half a minute, though, the bubble doesn't pop. She can feel her lungs burning, her skin turning blue from the cold and lack of oxygen. She clenches her eyes shut, presses her lips together, and lets go of the cradle.

Just as she gives up and prepares to take in water, the bubble bursts, and Aisha is left freezing in the cold of the temple. She's not wet, since the waters of Laguz bubbles are only magical constructs, but _how_ did that one last so long? Unless that was a particularly strong Laguz, the bubble shouldn't have lasted more than twenty seconds.

 _Yes_ , Aisha tells herself as she turns to face the cradle once more, _that must have been a very strong Laguz if the demon generals trusted her to take care of a human infant_. The baby is starting to cry again, and very loudly. If this keeps up, they'll attract the attention of the guards, and Aisha doesn't know if she can destroy a battalion of demons _while_ defending the cradle.

Aisha is not good with children. She reaches out to Angkor, who is also not good with children, and finds no answers. In the end, she digs through her grimoire, finding a spell she's never used, and lets her words wash over the baby. Slowly, the crying stops, replaced by soft breathing as the baby falls asleep.

The presence of this child worries her. Why on earth would the demons be interested in keeping a _human_ child around? Who are the parents? Were they killed in the onslaught? Are there more children like this?

She shakes the thought out of her head. There's no time to waste, after all. She dips her hands into the cradle, lifting out the baby, blankets and all. She's never swaddled a child, but she manages to wrap the baby into some sort of soft cocoon, and tucks an arm around the package as she raises her staff with the other.

There are sounds of fighting coming from elsewhere in the temple. Aisha is pretty sure she can hear Elsword screaming, and she smirks. "Let's go see what your redheaded uncle is up to," she tells the baby, even though neither she nor Elsword are anything close to familial figures to this child.

She raises her wand and teleports deeper into the temple, right into the battle.

* * *

Elsword doesn't know how hungry he really is until his stomach growls right in the middle of battle.

He's literally standing on the altar, dangling Ignia a foot off the ground by the ponytail, when it happens, and it's just so sudden that Elesis starts laughing. "How long have you gone without eating?" She taunts. "A few more days, and you'll have wasted away into nothingness. Or we could just put you out of your misery and turn you to mincemeat now."

"Who or what are you, and what have you done to my sister?" He demands, clenching the ponytail higher. Ignia yelps in pain and swings an arm at him, but he steps aside easily.

Elesis laughs, and it's such a familiar sound that it's painful. Her voice is harsher than it was before. "What sister?" She says. "I only know pain."

Bursting into the altar room has given Elsword multiple world-shattering revelations:

One, Ignia Mavros, former priestess of the Fire El, has not been missing for years but simply hiding. Not only is she alive, but also a new demon general - the large demon insignias on her shoulders tell him that much. Her eyes are fiery and alive, more so than they were when she was a priestess. The altar room now crackling in flame tells him that she's been refining her powers.

Two, his sister Elesis Sieghart, who he hasn't seen in _ten years_ , is also alive and well. The clunky claymore that she set out from home with has been replaced with what seems to be a red cutlass, and the bright smile on her face with an emotionless frown. Her voice is jagged and lifeless, but it's still her.

And three, it seems that she's abandoned the side of justice and joined the demons as well.

There's a certain grace in her step as she walks towards the altar, trailing her blade behind her. The same demon insignia that Ignia wears with pride is a little more hidden in her outfit, skillfully integrated into the patterns on her gloves and shoes.

The biggest change that Elsword sees is in her eyes. Something must have happened to Elesis that changed her catastrophically, because her eyes are no longer the same bright red as her brother's. They bleed into gold, like blood splattered on rich honey. They burn with a sense of madness that Elsword would never have found in his sister, ten years ago.

"You are no brother of mine," she states, eyebrows furrowing together, "only a _pest_ for me to dispose of."

Elsword barely has time to raise his sword to protect himself when she lashes out with hers, neatly slicing through Ignia's hair and allowing her to drop out of Elsword's grip. "How dare you lay a hand on her," she hisses, standing over Ignia protectively. "I'm going to destroy you and everything you care for."

Elesis's sword comes flying out at him before he can think, and he vaults over it, rolling to a stop a few metres away. Coughing, he realizes too late that his own sword has skidded across the room, into a pool of flame.

There's no time to think. His sister is rushing at him, Ignia is rising to her feet and summoning fire again, and his sword is too far away to reach.

Elsword closes his eyes, and calls out to Conwell.

The scabbard at his side hums, and Elsword feels cold steel materialize in his hands. "Thanks," he mutters, raising his dual blades just in time to block off Elesis's onslaught. He ducks and weaves under her arms, knowing fully well that he should be fighting back, but this is his _sister_ , the only blood relative he still has, and he can't bring himself to inflict damage on her.

Elesis, on the other hand, is going all-out in this fight. She flicks her wrist and suddenly Elsword is sprawled across the floor, with only one blade left to protect himself with.

"Take it easy, babe," Ignia cackles from over by the altar. "You don't want to make the kid piss himself."

She's headed towards his sword, Elsword realizes with a start. He pushes himself back to his feet, screaming, and lunges at her, knocking her aside. His sword is too strong to melt, but the fires are too hot to handle.

Regardless, Elsword reaches into the fire and pulls his sword out. The leather grip on the handle is still smouldering, but he doesn't feel it against his hand. There's too much adrenaline in his blood, too much confusion eating away at him, too much emotion tearing him to pieces.

There's a pop and a flash of darkness, and Elsword is left blinking away the dark spots in his vision as Conwell's power fades out of his hands and back into the scabbard. His sword continues burning in his hand, the pain finally starting to set in.

Someone roughly shoves a mess of cloth into his arms. Elsword realizes a few seconds later that the _someone_ is Aisha, and whatever she gave him is warm and very much alive.

"I didn't think you demons would have it in you to kidnap a child," she snaps, knocking the tip of Elesis's sword aside with her staff. "Have you no shame?"

Ignia's eyes go wide. "No-"

Aisha finishes her incantation before she can finish her sentence, a cloud of gloomy purple and green gases whooshing into existence around them in a clear ring. Elesis coughs loudly, immersed entirely into the foul-smelling gas, as Ignia doubles over. Aisha grabs Elsword's arm, waving her staff. "Hang on!"

Elsword watches in horror as the poison gas hits Ignia's flame and ignites, just as Aisha's teleportation spell turns the world upside down and drops them on the other side of nowhere.

"Where are we?" Aisha mutters, looking around as Elsword stumbles to his feet. "I think we've jumped pretty far this time…"

She squints at their surroundings. "That's Altera," she says, pointing into the distance at some island. "You can tell because of the fortress rising out of the middle. They call it the Core."

Elsword follows her finger towards the island, registering that yes, the island does in fact have a fortress towering over it. "Altera," he remembers, almost vaguely. "Elesis and Ignia said the the demons have plans to invade Altera."

Aisha stares at him incredulously. "That was your sister?" She gapes.

Before Elsword can reply with something sarcastic, the package of blankets in his arms moves and starts to cry. "This is a baby," he realizes in shock. "Holy fuck, Aisha, you abducted a kid?"

"In my defense, this is a human baby that was being raised by demons," she says, arms crossed over her chest. "I couldn't just leave them behind!"

"This could be my biological nephew or niece, for all we know," Elsword says, a little queasy. His sister is slim, almost too slim, and doesn't look like she's had a kid. "Now Elsa and her new girlfriend are going to come hounding after us."

"Then it's a good thing that we're going to stop them," Aisha says firmly. "Right now, we have three priorities. We've got to keep the baby safe, warn Altera of the incoming demon invasion, and also find food."

She turns around to point at the island in the distance. "And that island is where we're going to solve all three problems all at once."

"Isn't Altera inhabited by robots?" Elsword snarks. "Do you think they'll have food? Or child care services?"

"There are a handful of human guests of the Queen living on Altera," Aisha supplies. "Rumour has it she's been holing up the lost Prince Seiker of Hamel, and everyone kind of knows how the Yama Raja and the Lunatic Psyker went to live with her after Velder granted them a reprieve. Besides, Altera is home to the native population of Ponggos, and it's pretty well known how good they are at cooking."

Elsword shrugs, which is kind of hard when he has a sword in one hand and a baby in the other. "I'm sold."

Truthfully, he doesn't think the kid is his sister's. The gene that gives them their red hair and eyes is definitely dominant enough to have been passed down in their family for six generations, so if this is her biological child, he'd see red wisps of hair and curious red eyes. Instead, he sees dark hair in faded blue, and startling grey eyes. The baby babbles and reaches up to touch his face, pudgy little hand soft against his chapped skin and lips.

"That's your uncle Elsword," Aisha cooes, leaning over to see the child. "Are you a good baby? Yes you are, yes you are!"

"I think you're supposed to do that with dogs, not children," Elsword says wryly. "What are you then, grandma Aisha?"

She shoots him a glare, and goes right back to entertaining the baby. "Your uncle Elsword is a terrible person," she says. "Should we leave him here while we go to Altera?"

"Uh, no," Elsword says, "we're all going to go to Altera and tell the Queen that her empire is going to be invaded by demons, ASAP, so her island isn't destroyed in the onslaught."

"Sounds good to me," Aisha tells him. "Hang on."

She grabs his arm, and they disappear off to the other side of the ocean.

* * *

 **A/N: happy nanowrimo 2017! I've been planning this fic since December of last year, and I promise it'll be explosive and definitely worth a read!**

 **My other recent fics - _snow or ashes?_ and _Staraway_ \- have been practice fics, since I'm trying to figure out how much I can reasonably write in a day. Realistically, for nanowrimo I only need to write about 2k a day, but my record was about 5.5k. _Staraway_ was about 8k and written over the course of three days.**

 **The other thing I needed to practice was getting back into writing in third person. Due to Blink, I'm too used to writing in second person, and I really need to be more fluent in third person. I told myself when I first started working on Blink that I would keep it in second person, and the Inferno universe (now the Infernal Jukebox series) in third person.**

 **This fic is dedicated to my wonderful readers, and a special shoutout goes to guest user _Minerva Venus_ , who requested some IS/VP in this universe.**

 **I love y'all, chem sucks, listen to Mafumafu's cover of Jailbreak, peace out.**

 **~Marg**


	2. The Siege (I)

JAILBREAK

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 2

 _Surely we'd find human love and warmth beyond the confines of this gilded cage_

 **TW: blood and violence. Proceed with caution.**

Chung finds it funny that Eve can be so composed in battle, but look like she's about to tear her hair out when two humans arrive on her island bearing news of a huge onslaught of demons.

Oh, and a human baby.

He's seen how awkward she gets around the Ponggo children from the village. He's not entirely sure if she's even _seen_ a human child before, which is only more evident in how panicked she looks as the baby is handed around between the two newcomers and Ara.

"Chung," she hisses discreetly, "how does one take care of a human child?"

It takes all of Chung's self-control to not laugh out loud, because _of course_. Eve may be the queen of an all-powerful empire, but she is still so new to the younger things in life. "I think you'll have to figure that one out for yourself," he replies, patting her on the back.

Unfortunately, Chung is just as inexperienced with children as Eve, and by the looks of it, Add. The scientist seems to be terrified that his girlfriend is cooing at the tiny baby, and even more so when she shoves the kid in his face. "Add, do you want to hold the baby for a while?"

"No," Add yelps, raising his hands defensively. "I don't trust myself around tiny children! I barely trust myself around grown human people!"

Chung clamps a hand over his mouth, barely managing to stifle his laughter as Ara turns away from Add, pouting. "How are we supposed to raise our future children if you won't even hold a baby? You've got to learn at some point."

Add's face drains of colour. "Relax," Ara drawls, bouncing the baby in her arms. "Maybe we won't even have kids at all."

"As long as you use protection," Chung mutters, turning back to Eve. "Any thoughts?"

Eve is staring at the newcomers, her gaze piercing as ever. "You two." They immediately snap to attention. "Who are you?"

"Elsword Sieghart and Aisha Landar," says the red-haired guy, who can't be much older than Chung. "We've told you-"

"No. Who are you really?" Eve demands. "You came to my island, bearing no gifts of peace but news of an attack and a _tiny screaming human_. Either you are demons, or you are spies for the demons. A sense of demon foulness lingers around you both. So let me repeat. Who are you?"

Elsword blinks. "I guess my sister is a demon general, but we're freedom fighters, your highness," he insists. "We're working for Lento in Feita. Well, technically we're working for Lento. Aisha and I really just roam across Elrios, looking for demons to beat up."

"Just earlier today, we stumbled into the stronghold of the demons," Aisha continues. "They've got a base set up in Hamel, at the Hall of Water. We found some… Pretty disturbing stuff there."

She takes a deep breath. "First of all, the priestess of the Water El is dead," she says, "so jot that down. She's probably been dead for a while now, considering how much the wound on her stomach has festered."

Chung's jaw is dangling loose at this point. He practically grew up in the Hall of Water, and Sasha was like an older sister to him. Then again, it's not like this is the first time he's felt overwhelming loss. He knows his city has fallen, and he knows his father is gone. He should really start getting used to losing the people and things he holds near and dear to his heart.

"Secondly, Ignia Mavros," Aisha says, "the former priestess of Fire El, is alive. Unfortunately, she isn't… On our side anymore."

"She's a demon general," Elsword confirms. "And she's dating my sister, too."

Add scoffs. "We knew about Ignia. Who's your sister, dipshit?"

The redhead tilts his head, almost daringly, but his eyes are steely and firm. "Her name's Elesis Sieghart," he says, and there's a collective shudder in the room. "They call her - they _used_ to call her the Red-Haired Knight."

"No, not anymore," Ara confirms. "She has many names now, but not that. I've heard many of her nicknames, like the Knight of Darkness, and on occasion the Blood Knight, but the most common one… the Crimson Avenger."

Just the name alone is enough to make everyone shiver in fear. Chung has never faced this legendary warrior in battle, but he's heard enough stories of the carnage from Ara and Add to get the idea that he doesn't want to. They say she fights with the power of dark El, and while Chung knows people who do that, they also say she's been corrupted by its influence.

"Elsword, are you certain it's her?" Ara asks, shaking Chung out of his thoughts. "Red sword, weird bondage-looking outfit, ties her hair back with a scrap of red cloth?"

"Yeah," Elsword replies, a little red from the second thing on the list. "Why?"

Ara looks like she's trying not to scream. "It's a good thing you're here, then," she says, but it's clear she wants to say something more, "because if Elesis is out for blood, then she is _out for blood_."

The cold look returns to Eve's eyes. "Which reminds me," she says. "Why should I trust you? You claim that Sasha Vasilev is dead and and that you are the family of Elesis Sieghart, but what makes this claim a reality and not a trap?"

Then it begins.

The earth shakes beneath their feet, and Chung has to widen his stance just to keep himself on his feet. A siren goes off somewhere in the fortress - the earthquake siren, Chung recognizes, even though Altera is not an island that is _able_ to be plagued by earthquakes. Something or someone is attacking.

"That's why," Aisha says, standing up straight. "Altera is one of the last beacons of hope left. It cannot fall. We _had_ to warn you before it came."

Chung glances over at his best friend. Eve is silent, contemplating her choices. She'll have to play her pieces wisely to win this game. "Chung," she finally says, "go to the Ponggo village with Ara and Add. Help them pack up their most precious belongings and bring them here as quickly as possible. I fear they may be hurt if we do nothing now."

He dips his head. "Will do, Miss Eve."

She stands up, running her hands down her iron dress as if smoothing it down. "Aisha, Elsword," she continues, "come with me. You said you were freedom fighters? Time to prove it." The heels of her feet clank against the steps down her throne, and she throws her regal black cape aside.

"Altera is now at war," she announces, "and if my instincts are right, we are being besieged."

* * *

The first thing Eve registers as new to her island is the portal.

"Oh," she says, out loud. "That's new."

It's huge, purple, and basically dominates the western coast of her island, just off the bluffs. Crackling dark energy surrounds it, lighting the entire thing up in gold every once in a while. Demonic mages surround the portal, chanting their ugly, ominous words. To make things worse, it continues to spew out demons _en masse,_ dirtying her island.

Moby and Remy, summoned back to her side for battle, relay their concern for this new development to each other, and to her. Moby thinks she should blow it up with explosives. Remy reminds the other that portals are magical construct, and therefore not easily blown up.

Beside her, teleporting every few steps instead of bounding across the landscape like Elsword, is Aisha. The both of them are looking much more energized after they drank some water and ate some of Adel's homemade pastries, but Eve can tell they're tired, too.

"The other side of that portal is probably on the shores of Velder," the mage offers. "If we get close enough, I'll probably be able to shut it off, but there's no telling how many demons that thing is spewing out per minute. Gosh, I wasn't expecting something on _this_ calibre when they said they'd be invading Altera…"

"It is not your fault," Eve says, blinking. "Thank you for warning us before the attack. My empire would likely have fallen, had you not told us ahead of time."

Aisha smiles sheepishly. "Thank you taking us in," she says. "Elsword and I would have probably died if you hadn't let us rest here."

She turns away and focuses on the incoming wave of demons. "Now, let me return the favour."

When the demons are twenty metres away, Eve slips a hand into the holster on her leg, drawing out a slim chain of grenades.

When they're fifteen metres away, Eve pulls the pin out of the grenade on the end.

When they're five metres away, she swings the chain high over her head, bringing it crashing down on the first wave, and holds on tight as the explosions rock the ground and tear the rotting bodies of the glitter soldiers.

Despite Ara's persistent teasing, Eve is not a sadist. She does not enjoy seeing the suffering of others - she has seen too much suffering in her lifetime already. What she does enjoy, however, is seeing things that will ensure her empire's survival. Blowing demons to nothingness definitely counts as beneficial to her empire, so she takes joy in picking her battles.

Eve reaches a hand down to her side, letting the handle of a single sparkling spear magnetically fly out of its sheath into her hand. The glitter in front of her swings its hammer, and she catches against her blade, pushing back with twice the force. The hammer goes flying, and Eve surges forwards, plunging her spear into rotting flesh and tearing out a train of dark blood.

An explosion shakes the ground at her feet, but she stays upright and keeps slashing and hacking her way through the incoming army. The sound emitted by the shockwave is very familiar, and Eve realizes Chung must have gotten his cannon back out of storage for this.

There has to be a threat back enough to cause him to turn back to his heavy weaponry, and she has to eliminate it.

"Elsword, Aisha, stand by!" She yells, over the din of the battle, as she runs codes and authorizations through her own mind. _Just twenty seconds_ , she tells herself, knowing fully well that she'll need much more time than that.

 _Hello, world. Full Generate Mode, activate._

A fan of spears explodes across her back as she finishes activating the incomplete code, pulling her back into a tight bunch and tearing the eye of a nearby glitter out. The full potency of the code is still a little out of her reach, and activating it will only bring everyone harm. She saw firsthand how it went with Q_PROTO_00, after all, and how her broken princess Apple tore herself apart to save her.

As the familiar pink flames begin to dance at her feet, Eve reaches into the holster on her hip and hooks her fingers around her blaster. "Secure yourselves," she orders, releasing all the safeties and adjusting her settings. "You may feel some gravitational pull!"

Aisha and Elsword finish their spells and grab onto what remains of nearby trees as she holds the blaster firm and fires.

There's a yelp as one demon crosses the event horizon into oblivion, and then another, and then Eve is struggling to hold her blaster in place as her miniature black hole swallows up glitters and weapons and stray rocks alike. She lets go of the trigger, and the blaster throws her backwards, just out of the reach of the exploding black hole.

For a moment, the battlefield is quiet. Eve sighs and deactivates the Queen's Throne code, feeling the spears on her back dissolve back into mana and El energy. Her drones return to her side, reporting her success in short bursts of code. She smiles and pats them gently.

A short distance away, Elsword coughs and peels himself off the ground. "That's a new one."

Aisha, on the other hand, is already upright, and is excitedly approaching Eve. "How'd you do that?" She asks, eyes lighting up. "I didn't know you could make black holes! Is your blaster powered by El, or something else?"

Eve doesn't even bat an eye. "It is a simple process," she says. "One only needs to convert El energy to electrical data, then force gravitational attraction to a single point at one's pleasure." She pauses. "If you so wish, I can give you the blueprints for the blaster…"

"No, that's okay," Aisha chirps, a little red in the face. "I also work with black holes, though it's not a real one… The gravitational force isn't strong enough to really banish them to the void, so I make do with sending them to another dimension."

"Then there must a way to focus your magic more efficiently," Eve says simply. "There is an unnaturally high content of mana in your body. Theoretically, you are capable of creating several black holes and maintaining them all at the same time."

Elsword clears his throat. "Uh, I hate to break the science-magic bonding, but don't we have a demon army to stop?"

He's right, and Eve has to bite back a string of dirty words as she hears Chung's cannonballs crash and explode in the distance. "Thank you for reminding me." She turns to Aisha. "You can teleport. Can you get the three of us back to the fortress?"

Aisha grits her teeth and raises her wand. "I can try, or die trying."

Then there's a flash of purple light, and then they're all back in Eve's throne room, just as another explosion shakes the foundations of the mountain that the fortress is built on.

Eve rushes over to her balcony. In the distance, Chung stands near Add, the two working together to create a barrier against the incoming demons. Just below the castle ramparts, Ara is desperately ushering the Ponggos into the inner fortress, hoping they'll be spared from the fate of the rest of the island.

Beyond that, there lies a path of carnage and destruction. Oozing purple acid and black demon blood litter Altera's beautiful landscape. Thousands, _millions_ of demons continue to march in on towards the island, ready to kill or be killed.

Eve looks upon it and does not feel fear.

She feels _disgusted_.

As she whirls back to find Aisha and Elsword, she nearly trips over Adel, the chief of her neighbouring Ponggos. They are a kind village, after all, and Eve finds them too vaguely adorable to exterminate. Plus, her human friends enjoy their cooking.

"Elder," she says, "I am sorry about the village. It may be destroyed by the incoming demons..."

The Ponggo elder smiles. "Do not be, your highness," he assures her. "The village is alive as long as the villagers live. You had the good sense to reach out to us before any harm could. All of the villagers are alive and accounted for, so all is well."

Sometimes, Eve wonders why she doesn't just appoint Adel to her war cabinet. Then again, he's not exactly a tactician - only someone filled with wisdom beyond his years. Ponggos are not warring creatures, and Eve knows that to keep her strictly diplomatic relations with the village, she must protect them from the demons.

Still, he deserves to hear her battle plans, especially since the future of the Ponggo population on Altera could depend on it. "We will need to hold the village within the fortress," she tells him. "Elder, I know you are not fond of war, but for the sake of the villagers, please, let me fight."

"Of course, your highness," he says. "Why, I'll get Agatha and Aida to help keep some level of order in the chaos. You do have a young human child with you, don't you?"

Eve blinks. "Yes. We do. Thank you, Elder."

Adel dips his head, and Eve sweeps into a bow. It's a bit cynical, their bowing games, but it doesn't feel right for her to refer to Adel as anything but Elder. Eve was programmed for diplomacy, and with diplomacy comes respect.

It does feel weird for him to refer to her as your highness, though. She turns back to the rest of the fortress, where Ponggos are starting to stream in. "Eve," yells someone over the stampeding of fluffy feet.

It's Ara. "Eve, where do you want me to bring them?" She asks. "They can't all fit into the throne room!"

Eve makes her decision in a split second. "We have to bring them to the bunkers," she shouts. "There's no other place we can house them. It's the only place safe enough for them to live."

The river of Ponggos continues to flow. Presently, Eve is aware of someone standing beside her. "Yo," Elsword says. "Would you happen to know anyone on this very large island who knows how to take care of a small, screaming human child?"

Eve looks down into the grey eyes of the "small, screaming human child", and is immediately struck by the strangest thought. Does this tiny human not know anything? She has had to tell Chung things she thought were common knowledge, after all. Perhaps this tiny child knows nothing at all.

It is also very, _very_ small. She didn't know humans were this small at creation. She's never seen a human baby before, and this one is rather peculiar.

She runs a program, and activates the El gem imbedded into her forehead for a scan. When the light runs over the baby, however, it starts to cry. Elsword sighs, like he's done this a million times before, and bounces the baby up and down in his arms, murmuring softly to quiet it down.

"Why are human children like this?" She asks. "Why do they cry? Newly-born Nasod do not cry, and they do not scream. Is this a human reflex?"

Elsword smiles sheepishly at her. "Well, I'm no Aisha," he admits, "but human babies are a bit different from Nasod children. Nasod are born with all the data they need already in their coding, right? Human babies are like blank slates. They get startled easily by new things."

"Oh." Eve stares at the baby. "So they are alarmed by the introduction of new information?"

"Definitely. Try your scan beam again," he suggests. "Maybe the little one won't scream this time."

She does, and as the blue runs over the baby, it only squirms a little and whimpers, but a bit more cooing and bouncing from Elsword is enough to calm it down. "Kids," he snorts, flashing a brilliantly exasperated grin at Eve. "I was never good at babysitting."

Eve decides she doesn't want to ask what "babysitting" means.

Just as she's about to turn away, a red light flashes in her communications control centre. It's a video call, and from the looks of it, the caller is Add. Eve beckons Ara over and opens the call up, beaming it out of her El gem.

The battlefield looks bleak, but Add looks as annoying spotless as ever. "Things are holding out pretty well," he yells, even as another one of Chung's shells explodes overhead. "Aisha's joined us and she's starting to close the portals. We could use another hand to fuck some stuff up in the demon ranks."

"I'll go," Elsword volunteers. "Just give me a moment to hand this baby to someone who knows how to take care of them."

Add mutters something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like "incompetent", but shakes himself back to the situation quickly. "The really important thing," he says, "is that fire bitch and blood bitch are here, under a blue flag."

"So they're not here to surrender?" Ara clicks her tongue disapprovingly. "I suppose we'll have to go out and barter with them, then."

"Good. I'll fall back closer to the fortress, then, for support," Add says. "You might want to release a few cohorts of your soldiers, Queenie."

Eve rolls her eyes. "Alright. Get to work, then."

"Sayonara, sucker," Add snarks. "Stay safe, Ara!"

"You too!" Ara exclaims, and then Eve ends the call and the holographic display blinks out.

Elsword turns to Ara. "Has anyone told you that you and the purple guy are really domestic?"

"Shut it," Ara snaps, her face red. "Eve, let's head out."

"Alright." Eve turns on her satellite tracking, pinpointing the location of the demon generals on her island. "Elsword, give the baby to any Ponggo you find. Tell them that the baby _must_ be given to Adel, Agatha, or maybe Aida if the other two are unavailable." It's not that she doesn't trust Aida, it's just that she's so tiny that the baby is probably half her size. "Good luck."

As Elsword runs off, Eve takes a deep breath and turns to her other best friend, determination steely. "Let's go find these demon generals."

* * *

The demon entourage is _really_ weird.

Elesis and Ignia are dressed in all red, their classic colours. Eve wonders how Elsword and Aisha found out that these two menaces are romantically involved.

The rest of their posse is in blue. Two incubi hold up a giant flag in light blue, while the Waldo in the back, looming over the rest of them, has blue tattoos over its chest. It grunts occasionally, snorting steam and tiny purple particles out of its nose.

"Good afternoon, ladies," Ignia says cheerfully, swinging her spear around behind her. "Aren't you going to extend a warm welcome to us? We're guests to your island, after all."

"No guest of mine would invade the island with an army of demons," Eve retorts. "The only thing I should be welcoming you to is your death."

Ignia laughs. "Wow, straightforward, much?" Her smile turns a little more serious. "We're here to talk war, and we're here to talk siege. We have two proposals for you, two offers to you that would end this war immediately. One of them is to hand over the baby that you abducted."

"There is no baby on Altera," Ara interjects. "You're asking for impossible terms here."

Ignia gives her a pointed look. "Oh really? Then pray tell me why the girl who lifted her from her cradle is up there," she says, pointing at the portal in the sky, "deactivating the hard work of hundreds of necromancers?"

Indeed, Aisha is floating next to the portal, arcane energies raising her into the sky as she chants ominous words and channels magic. The portal slowly shrinks, the edges shuddering back and forth. "Touché," Ara says, grimacing. "Still doesn't mean that we're going to just hand the baby over to you!"

"I didn't expect you to." Ignia's lips curl upwards. "Our second offer to you is for you to join our forces. You and your island will swear loyalty to the demon alliance, and in return, we'll reward you with glory and treasure when all of Elrios is ours."

"Again, no," Eve says blandly. "Me, join you, while I have an island of my own? How desperate for power do you think I am?"

She allows herself a moment of satisfaction as she sees Ignia's reaction. "You might be better off joining _me_ ," she offers. "My empire is growing and at peace. Yours is in a state of chaos and war. Which, do you think, will provide better for its future? For your own sake, it may be better for you to end your conquest now and give up, so I don't completely and utterly _annihilate_ you."

Elesis reaches a hand out to hold Ignia back as the latter snarls, but Eve stands firm. "Ignia," she says softly. Her voice sounds like she's put it through too much strain, and now it's broken. "I'm sorry, Queen Eve, on her behalf."

"I'm not sorry about anything-"

"As you can tell," Elesis continues, ignoring her girlfriend, "while we have not arrived under a red flag, it is not a white flag either. The demonic empire traditionally works in blue, and our siege policies are very different from what you might expect.

"On the first day that we attack a city or nation, or in your case, island, we raise the light blue flag. If you should surrender now, we will spare all of you," she explains. "Tomorrow, we will arrive with a darker blue flag. If you should choose to surrender tomorrow, we will execute your leaders and spare the citizens."

"From the third day forwards, we raise the black flag," Ignia concludes. "And _anyone_ captured or surrendered will be executed."

Eve thinks about this for a moment. She can't surrender her island, not after going through such hell to return it to a state of peace. On the other hand, there's no telling what will come of the next two days, and the days coming after that. If Altera falls tomorrow, then Eve will die, and without her, the empire of Altera will disintegrate.

The only hope she has left is to fight back.

She extends her hand to Elesis. "Thank you for your offer," she says as the woman shakes it hesitantly. "But I must decline. I have an empire to take care of."

Elesis dips her head. "You are a fair ruler, Queen Eve," she says. "Best of luck."

Beside them, Ara holds out a hand for Ignia to shake, but the former priestess catches herself before she shakes it. "Oh my god," she laughs, "you're Ran's kid sister. Elesis, this is Ran's kid sister."

Ara bares her teeth at her, the animalistic side of her taking over. "Yeah, and I'm the one who left the scar on your ass. Can you even sit down with that wound?"

Elesis looks like she's about to say something, but gives up. "Until tomorrow," she says, doing a traditional demon salute - a curt bow with her arms crossed over her chest. "Then the pests will be eradicated."

The Waldo grunts, and the incubi come to attention and turn around, with the two demon generals behind them.

The peculiar little demon procession marches off, leaving two very, _very_ confused warriors in their wake.

* * *

Most of the fighting stops around seven that evening, when the sun is going down over the ramparts of the fortress. A few skirmishes between the Nasod soldiers and those of the demons linger around the far edges of the island until about eight, but it's alarming, how quickly the fighting simply _ends_.

"They closed all the remaining portals at seven," Aisha growls, glaring at her plate. "They left all those still left on the island to die. What cowards."

"That just gives us more time to prepare," Elsword says, shrugging, as he shovels rice and beans into his mouth. Eve is mildly alarmed by both their eating habits, but she doesn't question it. She's seen how Ara can eat after a heavy battle. "We're gonna kick their asses anyway, so it's only fair that they get a break."

The Ponggos were unable to bring along any of their medications or foods, so Eve found an old contraption she built when Chung, Ara and Add came to live with her. It breaks material down on a molecular level to reconstruct it as something edible and nutritious. Elsword was very much opposed to the use of the machine, but after seeing and tasting the fried rice it produced (out of charcoal and grass, no less), he's been eating more of it than anyone else.

Add is staring into open space, not quite focused on anything. "They'll be back early tomorrow, then," he muses. "With double the heavy hitters. All of us are going to have to get out there and fight for…" His voice trails off.

 _Fight for our lives,_ Eve finishes mentally. _For my island. For my empire. For our honour._

"Hey Ara," Aisha says, "do you have any magical experience?"

"A little," Ara admits, blushing. "I can do some pretty basic incantations-"

Add puts a hand on her shoulder. "Nonsense, you're one of the few people left on this wretched planet that has any control over this weird ancient form of Oriental magic, and look how much you've mastered it."

Aisha smiles. "That's good. I thought I could sense some mana in you. You're a borrower, aren't you? You use the energy of others to supplement your own."

"Something like that," Ara says. "Why?"

"Well, if you want to, you could join me in shutting down the portals," Aisha offers. "You have lots of magic potential, so in theory, if you supplement your magic with a bit of borrowed energy, you could shut down portals pretty quickly and efficiently."

Ara exhales loudly and closes her eyes, which Eve has grown to understand means _Eun is coming._ The black drains out of Ara's hair, and her chair flies backwards as her eyes turn red. Aisha yelps. Elsword drops his spoon out of sheer surprise.

Eun smiles, baring her canines at the newcomers. "Welcome to Altera, darlings," she says, her voice low and cunning. "Enjoy your stay while you still can."

Her eyes snap on Aisha, then on the sheath at Elsword's side. "No need to hide yourselves anymore, Angkor, Conwell. You can come clean now."

Aisha's eyes go wide, as do Elsword's, but then a tiny white bat pops out of the tip of Aisha's staff. "Lord Eun!" It chirps, voice unnaturally high and squeaky. "It's been millennia since we last met!"

"Indeed," Eun hums, as a smoky, hazy form emerges from the scabbard on Elsword's hip. "And much too long since we last met, Conwell."

" _Oh, of course,"_ a low voice rumbles. " _You've got quite strong hosts, I see."_

"As do you," the bat chitters.

Add shakes his head. "Hold on a second. You guys all know each other?"

"Of course," Eun says nonchalantly. "Most ambivalent spirits have gotten to know each other in the past, at some point. Of course, we weren't always on the same side of battle, but we've all been acquainted in one way or another."

Eve smiles softly and gets up from her seat. "I'll leave you to talk, then," she says. "I'll be retiring for the evening. Please get a good night's sleep, as tomorrow will likely bring about even more fighting." She pauses for a moment. "If anyone needs first aid supplies, they are stored in the cabinet outside Ara and Add's room. Aisha, Elsword, please take the bedroom across from theirs for the evening."

"Thanks, Eve," Aisha says warmly, setting down her fork. "You go rest up, too. We'll check on the Ponggos before we go to sleep."

Unsure as to how to respond to this, Eve nods curtly and heads towards her ever-messy room. It serves as an office, a workshop and a resting chamber, and the one window on the far side allows her to escape quickly into the night for a quick run.

She stares at her own hands as the door she'd closed previously opens again behind her. "Miss Eve, are you alright?" Chung asks, coming to sit down quietly next to her. "You kinda rushed out of dinner and didn't even stay to talk…"

"Ah," she says. "I am less well versed with magic than the others. It is not my place to stay in that conversation. The reunion between the three spirits, as well… It is a little unsettling."

Chung laughs out loud. "That's okay," he assures her. "It means your emotional drive is working properly. You're doing better with the whole shock factor."

"Speaking of shock," Eve says, thinking back to when she ran into Elsword and the baby earlier in the afternoon, "do humans experience it often?"

She's not really just thinking of shock by itself, but something a bit deeper. She never experienced the concept of "childhood", after all, and the introduction of the tiny alien creature to her empire has been intriguing.

"Well… I guess it comes with how much you know," Chung muses. "Like, humans have a tendency to react loudly to things they're viewing for the first time, or something they don't see often. Kinda like the way you reacted to the baby, in a sense. You kinda freaked out."

Eve acknowledges this in a dignified manner. New things alarm her all the time, even if she has the sufficient data to cover them. Then again, she's been robbed of thirteen thousand years, so the world of today and its humans are very, very new to her.

(Knowing about human sexual intercourse in a scientific way is one thing. Learning about how _loud_ and socially taboo it is through accidentally hearing Ara and Add do it is another.)

"Are all humans so… Easily frightened at a young age?" She asks. "It is uncharacteristic of young Nasod to experience emotions, so it is hard for me to gauge this."

Chung smiles softly, the apples of his cheeks bright and rosy. Eve likes that about him - there's always a happy, healthy glow to him, regardless of the situation. "I suppose you were like that too, at some point," he points out. "Before you were able to access the archive to take down the old king, I bet you were lost and confused, too. It's natural to feel fear, regardless of who you are.

"It's how we deal with that fear," he adds, "that tells us how we've matured."

Eve is silent for a while. She imagines a Nasod with that - the ability to feel fear, to face something unknown and _learn_ to conquer fear instead of having that maturity and steel-like determination handed to it on a silver platter. She imagines a Nasod who takes her emotional drive one step further, one step closer to being human.

"Thank you, Chung," she says. "I… am going to go for a walk across the island."

Chung nods in understanding. "Take as long as you need," he says. "And if you run into any intruders, tell us over the comms, Miss Eve." He stretches his arms over his head. "I think I'm going to go take a shower and then head to my room."

Eve knows fully well he won't be sleeping until pretty late into the night. He's probably going to stay up reading or sketching or some mundane human thing that she'll never truly understand. "Alright," she says. "Good night, then."

Chung heads out the door, while Eve crosses the room to push open the window. The night air is fresh, the scent of ocean barely managing to cover the stench of demon blood flooding the island. A light breeze sweeps into the room, bringing along bugs that are instantly fried in the presence of Eve's natural magnetic field.

She snaps her fingers. Behind her, Moby and Remy jump to attention, humming and ready to receive orders. Eve raises a foot onto her desk, and they surge to join her as she steps through the windowsill and drops through the night sky.

The ground rushes up to meet her, but Eve is not worried. The boosters under her feet come to life, allowing her to reach the ground softly. Thankfully, the soil just around the fortress is not dark with demon blood, at least not yet. She steps onto firm ground and starts to walk.

Her first stop is not, surprisingly, to attempt to jump across the strait to Velder, but the Ponggo village, or at least what remains of it. The old mineshaft that lead to the village is virtually unrecognisable, covered in rubble and clawed-up rocks. As Eve pushes aside debris to even get into the village, she finds shrapnel from Chung's shells.

Below, the buildings have been ravaged. Amos's apothecary shop has been crushed, and its library buried in the resulting rockslide. Adel's house has been burned, which makes Eve wonder what other mages Aisha will have to face in the days to come.

She stoops to fish a tiny El gem pendant on a mithril chain out of what remains of Aida's shop. It's cold, like the rest of the ruined village. It's only sheer luck that got all the Ponggo villagers to safety, after all.

Eve decides that she's going to rebuild this village, brick for brick, under the safety of her own fortress. Anything to keep the little people safe.

She pads through the burned and bloodied main street, up to the other side of the town. The staircase that goes up to the top is dappled in strange purple plants, little violent violets that pop up like someone's footsteps. They sting to the touch and start recoiling, so Eve leaves them alone and leaves the remains of the village behind.

The walk back to the fortress is shorter, mostly because Eve takes the shortcut through the Core. Under the surface of Altera, the Core, mother of all Nasod, is hard at work producing its next metallic child. Eve feels its vibrations in every step she takes, and it reminds her of the struggle it took for her to get where she is.

As she slips through the hidden underground tunnel and emerges in the Core's control room, a brand new Nasod takes its first step, and comes face to face with its queen. "Hello," she says, unsure of what else to say. "Welcome."

The droid is motionless for a moment before its joints fold in front of it. Eve nearly rushes forwards to catch it before she realizes that _this is her subject, and it is bowing._ "You may rise," she tells it. "Do not worry. Join your siblings."

The youngest Nasod scurries back to its feet. "Thank you, your majesty!" It chirps, before running off to the next room, where its siblings are waiting. Eve sighs and turns around, going into a side room that not many know of.

Most don't expect there to be an infirmary on Altera, but one was constructed early into the reign of Queen Eve. There, Nasod missing parts or experiencing defects are repaired, because Eve believes that all her subjects are entitled to the body they wish to have. Some even come to be outfitted with the gear of a different model, and Eve fully supports those that do. If it allows them to be better fighters and build a stronger empire, then she will endorse it.

But in the past few months, the infirmary has seen too many injuries from battle, too many Nasod destroyed in battle. Their source code, contained in the indestructible ball known widely as a Nasod heart, is eternal, but the Core can only recycle its children so many times in a day. It is getting tired, too, and Eve feels its anguish just as strong as her own.

Nasod hearts line the translucent glass walls, waiting for their turn to be returned to the Core. The broken bodies of her people lie slumped against the floors, with barely enough strength to convey their pain. Many of them will be unsalvageable, and will simply have to wait for the next reincarnation cycle. The bunch that can be saved will be worked on by Nasod doctors and various generic machines, all so they can get up the next morning to break themselves again.

Eve is tired of watching her people suffer. Thirteen thousand years ago, she went to sleep with the hope that she could restore them, and now, after fighting for another fourteen years to regain her throne, she watches in horror as they wither and die at her feet.

"I'm sorry," she says out loud, and the entire room goes silent.

She realizes, a little late, that they're expecting her to say something more, anything to explain why their queen is apologizing so suddenly. "I'm sorry that I've thrown you all into this war," she says. "I'm sorry that your young bodies must be wasted like this. You deserve better than this."

She glances at the hearts on the walls, awaiting their reincarnations. "And to those beyond injury," she adds, "I'm sorry that I've let you expire from the terrors of war. As your queen, I have done a terrible job of protecting you."

Her people are silent, and for a moment, Eve understands what it means to feel _heartbroken._ But then a single signal hits her, from all her subjects.

 _They want this war to end just as much as she does. This is the empire she fought tooth and nail for, and they_ cannot _see that go to waste._

"Thank you," she manages. "I… Will continue to fight. For Altera's future. For all of you. For a future of peace and prosperity."

She leaves the Core before anyone can say anything else.

Her own room is a welcome silence, for once. Eve sits down at her desk, closes the window, and sighs.

Elsword and Aisha are most likely fast asleep, exhausted from days of nonstop travelling. Chung is bound to be reading something, or perhaps listening to music or white noise. Ara and Add are probably curled up in each other's embrace, kissing each other's wounds and lips and weary eyes.

And Eve is tired.

Someday, she knows she will no longer be queen. Someday, she will be too far gone to be salvaged. Even if that indestructible heart of cold steel in her chest continues to radiate El energy, she might not be a queen in her next build cycle. She could be a doctor, or a sniper, or even the unwilling pawn in the hands of a tyrant.

It happened once. It cannot happen again.

Her next successor must not just know. He must understand, he must _feel_. She opens her personal computer and pulls up the incomplete emotional drive code that her father, the great Adrian Nasod, created and put into her. Just looking at it, she recognises where her own impulses start and end, and why the code never reached it full potential, but it's too late to alter the code in her own body.

If she can finish developing this code, she will build a child of her own, much like a human child - easily startled, but quick to make impressions. He will have all of her knowledge, but also the emotions and motivation that only a human can have. He will be the connection that brings the human race and the Nasod empire together, her new bullet shot far into the darkness.

"Nexus," she says, "the connection."

Eve finds a cable, plugs it into her own arm to upload her version of the code, and begins to write the story of a new Nasod child.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm behind on schedule**

 **I went to see a school counselor about my anxiety and she redirected me to the school psychologist who very enthusiastically told me to write out my worries**

 **really whenever there's murder in my fics it means i'm very stressed IRL**

 **but yeah I'm hella behind on schedule, I've got three days left to write two chapters to stay on schedule, but hey the epilogue can't take more than like two days am i right so in theory i should be able to finish! writing keeps me alive really and I am allowed to bring my laptop to school so woot woot let's go productivity**

 **~Marg**


	3. The Siege (II)

JAILBREAK

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 3

 _Your silly blueprint, just a child's fantasy_

 **TW: sexual content and violence. Proceed with caution.**

Add wakes up to the sound of soft whimpers and the feeling of black hair and warm hands across his bare chest and shoulders.

He turns lazily on his side, groaning loudly, and feels Ara's grip on him shift, a little more frightened and desperate. His eyes snap open instantly, finding her eyes still shut but her eyebrows furrowed. Her hands are warm, but clammy with sweat.

Add has known Ara for long enough to know that she's having a nightmare, and it's not letting up.

"Hey," he says softly, brushing her hair out of her face. "Ara. Ara. It's alright, I'm here, wake up."

Eventually, her eyes flutter open, and they are filled with tears. "Add," she whispers, hopelessness filling her voice, "please hold me."

And he does. He reaches his arms out, and lets Ara bury her face in his chest as he pats her back soothingly. It's not all that different from back when they first started sharing a bed, the nights when Ara would have nightmares of her brother dying and leaving behind his demon. "What happened?" Add asks.

Ara is trembling in his arms. "You were drowning," she says quietly, voice muffled by the virtually nonexistent distance between them. "In darkness. And the only thing I could do was watch as they hauled you out of nothing, and you were-" She chokes on the next word and burrows further into his embrace, her heart beating furiously against his.

"It's alright," Add says, even though the thought of drowning is a little alarming. He holds Ara tighter and rests his chin on her head, waiting for her breathing to even out somewhat. "I'm here."

Somehow, it's become commonplace for them to just hold each other when one of them has a bad nightmare. Everything gets put on hold - battles, makeout time, even sex. Sometimes Add will get hit by intrusive thoughts in the middle of the day and just freeze, and Ara will hold him until the thoughts leave him alone, just as he holds her when her dreams become a waking nightmare.

Things like this build up their trust in each other, after all. Add isn't sure how Ara still trusts him at all after he walked out on her in Velder, but just talking to her, holding her like this, tells him that she'll always be here for him, too. Little bits of communication, genuine heart-to-hearts and late night breakdowns only serve to bring them closer together in these terrible times.

Of course, that doesn't mean there's not any unresolved passion between them. Both of them are a little needy, a little possessive, a little pleading for the other's attention, and that manifests in the way they come together in the bedroom. Eve has to call them out often in the mornings after a particularly passionate night, but what can Add say? He can't remember what life was like before he and Ara opened themselves to each other.

But sex can wait. Right now, Ara needs comforting, and as a good boyfriend, Add knows she needs to be held.

So he holds her.

"I'm scared," she murmurs. "Of a lot of things, actually."

"Me too," Add says, patting her back gently. "Tell me about it."

Ara sighs, pulling just far enough away from his embrace to look him in the eye. "Elesis Sieghart is a threat to everyone," she tells him. "If she really is the Crimson Avenger - which we've determined she is - then she was once Ran's second-in-command, and quite possibly his former lover as well."

She runs a slim fingertip across one of the scars on his chest. "It's a bit of a hidden piece of history," she chuckles, "and they hid it well. But I heard about it when I tried to infiltrate their base in Behemoth. The exact words Karis used were "inseparable" and "insufferable"." She laughs dryly. "Whatever they were, it's gone now. Elesis is sleeping with the fire bitch. What else is new?"

"When'd you do this infiltration?" Add asks, one eyebrow raised.

Ara thinks for a moment. "In the month when I was looking for you," she recalls. "I-I was scared the demons had captured you, that you'd gone on some crazy suicide mission to blow up Behemoth or something…"

Add winces. He kind of did, but not there.

The story of Lanox's Mount Flame erupting and burying the city is pretty well known in the rest of the free world. Just over a year ago, the main volcano erupted, triggering the rest of the Mount Flame complex and entirely crushing the city under the resulting ashes and lava. The Grimaldi sisters, priestesses of the Sun and Moon El, were among the casualties.

Just among the little circle of fighters in Altera, though, it's generally accepted that the eruption was triggered by Ignia Mavros. The only other person with immense power on that scale is Artea Braun, and she's still on the side of the free Elrios. Ignia was a Lanox native all her life, and if anything, she'd know how to direct the fire to destroy the city the best.

In the month after he left Ara, Add went places. He went to Lanox, hoping he could help with rescue or cleanups. He avoided places with bridges and cliffs at all costs - his intrusive thoughts wouldn't let him do anything productive with that. He dropped into demon bases in the dead of night and _slaughtered_ them, sometimes by the thousands. In the day, he'd drop back into towns, helping them fortify themselves against a demon attack that would (hopefully) never come.

It took a toll on his health. By the time Ara tracked him down again in that little bar in Bethma, though, he'd taken up drinking heavily. He was losing weight rapidly. Guilt constantly threatened to swallow him whole.

Just thinking about the guilt makes him feel like he's drowning in anxiety. Add forces himself to push the thought out, replaces it with the thought of warmth and comfort and _Ara_ right in front of him.

"I'm also scared of the newcomers," she continues. "This is _our_ city now, Add. Our home. They came with a tiny baby and bad news of an incoming attack, and look what's come of it - a straight up siege. I get that they're fighting with us, but what do they want? What is their ulterior motive?"

Ara looks at her own hands, a little shocked. "And the spell Aisha gave me," she says, "it's nothing like anything I've ever seen. I… I'm sure she's a powerful mage, but how can she trust me with this?" She puts her face in her hands. "What if I screw it up and kill us all by accident? Am I even strong enough to use a spell like this?"

Add is quiet for a moment, because quiet is what they both need. Ara has a lot of insecurities, and regardless of how much he assures her that she's perfect, she'll still never be completely confident in a lot of her abilities.

He gathers her hands in his, and kisses each of her fingertips, letting his lips linger for a few moments before kissing her open palms. "Ara, you _are_ strong enough to use the spell," he tells her, "and you are more than strong enough to master it." He smiles. "I trust that Aisha saw that in you when she gave you the incantation, too."

Just for good measure, he leans forwards and kisses her. Ara squeaks a little in surprise, but she falls into the kiss, her hands leaving his to tug him closer to her.

Add likes that about kissing Ara. She always tastes like something herbal but warm and saccharine, like lavender and mint and sweet, sweet vanilla sugar. Even when they've both had a little something to drink, Add will always crave the taste of her lips, the gentle pull that brings them closer together and makes it so much more real, makes her so much more real.

She's not just another pretty face in a bar, as so many have called her (and regretted). Ara is her own person, and Add loves her for it.

A moan escapes Ara's lips, low and breathy. Add is suddenly made _very_ aware that both of them are still barely clothed after their business the night before. He pulls her closer, feels her shift her hips against him and -

Then there's a loud boom, shaking the both of them back to reality. "What was that?" Ara whispers, muscles tensing up. "Oh god, are the attacks starting back up?"

The door bursts open, and Add suddenly feels very cold and exposed as Chung rushes in and immediately whips around, furiously red. "I'm gonna pretend I didn't just walk on you two doing some weird kinky shit," he says. "But, uh, apparently demon warfare recommences at six in the morning precisely, so that would explain the explosions outside."

He pauses for a moment. "You guys _might_ want to get dressed and eat something substantial before you get up to go fight. Just a heads up."

Add lets out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding as the door closes behind Chung. "Well," he says, "time to get up, I guess."

Ara makes a deflating noise. "That really killed the mood," she comments, stretching her arms over her head as she rolls off him.

Even in the dim light of the morning, Add admires her silken, pale legs in silence, and has to remind himself that _there is a war happening_ , and this is no time to be getting happy thoughts. "We'll just have to make up for it tonight, then," he tells her, climbing out of the mess of blankets. "After we've won today's battles."

Add finds his shirt draped over the chair at his desk, and his shoes scattered - one under the desk, the other against a nearby wall. His pants and underwear are tossed at the base of the bed, where he typically finds them after he and Ara sleep together. His armor, thank god, is in its closet where it belongs. It would be a shame if he'd broken that.

He jumps around, trying to pull a sock over his foot while standing on the other, and -

"Oh." Guilt threatens to tear him to pieces again as he stares right into the huge scar on Ara's back, the one that he let happen because he _wasn't fast enough_. It hurts him more to look at it than anything else in the entire world.

He'd take that wound a million times over if it meant Ara would be free of it.

"Add?"

Ara's voice instantly snaps him back to reality. "Hey," she says, walking over to him, "it's not your fault. It was never your fault to begin with."

He doesn't say anything, just drops to his knees and pushes her lightly with his fingertips. She gets the idea and turns around, displaying her back openly to him.

The scar is an ugly reminder of their mistakes in the past. One moment, Add was at Ara's side, knocking aside a glitter's hammer and frying an entire row of demons. The next, she was falling, and blood pouring out of her back as a dark elf from hell stood over her, bloody knife raised over her head.

So he killed that dark elf. He threw her to the ground, and stomped on her with his electric footsteps, and carved her heart out with her own bloody knife and burned it. Monsters don't deserve another life, after all, and if Add knew anything back then, it was that anyone who hurt Ara is a monster.

He comes face to face with the scar, in all its beautifully ugly glory, and kisses it. Ara arches her back from the sudden warmth, but falls into it.

They do this a lot, actually, but Add loves how it never fails to make Ara squirm. She's pretty ticklish and very sensitive, and as a result he can get the most delightful noises to come out of her when he pokes her. Still, this isn't quite the same as their midnight kisses - this is slower, more tender and pleading for forgiveness.

They get dressed quite quickly afterwards, because both of them have seen Eve's wrath when they show up late to a war conference. The door to their room is a little wobbly, probably from Chung's sudden arrival earlier in the morning. All is quiet in the hallway, but the explosions outside occasionally shake the very ground they stand on.

When they arrive in the conference room (aka. Breakfast central), the others are all seated around the long table, armed with plates of fried eggs, heaping servings of fried apples and onions, and freshly buttered toast. Add was never fond of large breakfasts, but they need the energy to fight for the day. Elsword and Aisha are scarfing down their breakfast at light speed. Adel, who has joined them at the table, smiles at them amusedly.

Eve looks stormy and cold, as ever. It's a look Add has gotten annoyingly gotten used to. "Please try to get up earlier," she sighs, poking at the single egg on her plate with her fork. The yolk breaks and begins to leak into the white. "And if you can't get up earlier, please consider sleeping at a humane hour, and _keeping quiet so the rest of us can get some sleep_."

Add glances at Ara, who shrugs unapologetically and shovels a chunk of apple into her mouth. Eve looks like she's about to have a robotic aneurysm. "Sit down. We have a lot to go over."

As they all sit down to eat, Eve stands up and flicks her hand at the holographic tablet in the centre. A light model of Altera rises from the tablet, shimmering in sparkling blue. "This is the island," she says, spinning the model around. "I will explain your tactical designations later, but first, there is alarming information about the demon attack.

"Yesterday, Ara and I met up with Elesis Sieghart and Ignia Mavros. They informed us that if we surrendered yesterday, we would all be spared, but assimilated into the demonic empire. Today, they raise the dark blue flag. If we surrender or lose now, they will execute all the leaders of the rebellion."

Add thinks about this for a moment. A move like that would leave Altera without a leader, and without a leader to stick up for them, the Ponggos and the surviving remnants of the Nasod Empire would be killed overnight as well. "We can't lose, then," he mutters.

Eve nods. "If we are… forced to surrender," she says slowly, picking each word out cautiously, "then I would like all of you to escape the island on a lifeboat. I am the queen of the empire, and you are but my guests. It would not be very noble of me to let you die with me."

"Bullshit," Elsword snorts. Everyone turns to look at him incredulously. "You think we'll just let you die alone here? Aisha and I came here to fight a war, not to lose it."

"We're gonna win out against the demons," Aisha pipes in. "Even if it kills us, we'll protect this island, for the sake of all free peoples!"

They all cheer. Eve blinks blankly, though there's a ghost of a smile on her face. "Thank you. Thank you for helping me save my people."

She shakes her head. "But now, we must talk strategy. The island of Altera is not small; there is a lot to defend. We must split up in a tactically beneficial manner to cover as much of the island as we can.

"Chung, Elsword. The two of you will stay on the shores, sweeping up any infantry groups along the coast. Do not head too far inland. I will deploy a group of Nasod to help each of you." She traces a finger along the coast, pointing out two rock structures on opposite sides of the island. "Point seven and point ninety-three mark the westernmost and easternmost points on Altera Island. The two of you are to stay on opposite sides of the island, and work in semicircles. Once you hit the rock structures, head back in the opposite direction with your squad.

"Ara, Aisha, I trust that you both know what you're doing with the portals. Each of you will take half the island, similarly to Chung and Elsword, and clear the portals overhead," she says. "If you would like, I can give you a hover platform to operate on."

She turns to Add, eyes narrowed. "You."

"Me," Add agrees. "What's up?"

Eve looks vaguely exasperated, but continues with her planning. "You will provide cover for everyone else," she says. "I will connect you to the surveillance satellites, which will give you the visual data you need to locate any demons that may have slipped past the the others. There will also be a group of Nasod to accompany you, in case you should tire in battle, and if you should need extra Dynamos, I can access them remotely and deploy them to your position."

"Wait," Add says, suddenly realizing what her last offer entails, "did you hack into my backup Dynamo stash?"

She blinks blankly. "It was a simple job," she says. "Although you should really clean up your coding. It was very frustrating to get through your firewalls."

"You weren't supposed to get past the firewall to begin with," he mutters, but then Ara puts a hand on his shoulder, and he relaxes under her touch.

"I will stay in and around the fortress, as so to protect it if anything gets past Add," Eve concludes. "I will also relay all relevant information to all of you, in case any sort of emergency arises."

"Great," Chung says, tossing the last of his toast in his mouth. "Then let's get going. Suit up, arm yourselves, and good luck."

"Good luck," Aisha and Elsword echo, as all of them get up from the table and begin to bring their plates to the kitchen and wash them.

Add washes his plate and fork in silence, Ara washing hers beside him. "Are you ready?" She asks, playful mischief lining her voice.

"Do you wanna go?" He counters. "Make it a competition. First one to, I dunno, three thousand kills, gets to call the shots tonight."

Ara flashes him a brilliant grin. "Oh please. You let me do that anyways."

She reaches a hand behind his head and pulls him in for a quick kiss. Add tries not to worry about how this could be the last kiss that they share, that they could never see each other again, and holds her closer, soapy hands and all. It gets soap all over her dress, but he knows Ara doesn't care, not when she gets demon blood all over herself all the time anyways.

Add hopes he won't have to see Ara drenched in demon blood when the fighting ends today, but he'll take it over seeing her drenched in her own blood anyday.

He's seen her hurt too many times for one lifetime already.

* * *

The little Nasod unit is quite the bunch.

Add can tell that they've trained to work together as a cohesive unit. The aerial snipers cover the infantry from afar, while the infantry takes out anything that could launch missiles towards the snipers.

It's beautiful, watching a shining Nasod bullet pierce through the rotting skull of a glitter, or a sparkling blade splitting apart the chest of some incubus. Add feels instantly a pang of jealousy of Eve's designing skills - the weapons she gives to her people are sleek and versatile, yet very much deadly and destructive.

What none of the Nasods are prepared for, though, are the Bomberlords.

 _Ah yes. The fucking Bomberlords._

The first official order that Add gave his little army was to leave the Bomberlords alone, and stay far away from them. He knows that the chemical sludge inside their stomachs is not only explosive, but corrodes metal at an alarming rate. He's seen the remains of a Bomberlord wreck 16-gauge steel within minutes, and knowing how the Core produces her children, he knows that the Nasods of his unit won't stand a chance against them.

The Bomberlords move like cows in a field, slow and sluggish but very much in flight. They look grotesque and puffed up, full of deadly acidic explosives.

The one nearing the group is just as ugly as the rest of its brethren. It lets out a foghorn noise, and Add winces. That usually means it's about to spew acid. "Move away!" He yells at the Nasods around him, who lower their weapons and duck aside.

Add swings his foot around, roundhouse kicking the Bomberlord into orbit. It spins around wildly, acid flying from its puckered lips. "Hang on," he yells at his unit, "and keep moving!"

He might not be quite as flexible as Ara, but Add has trained himself to have the physical strength to support his electrical attacks. He raises a leg, lets his Dynamos imbue him with plasma, and sends out a volley of furious kicks, each carrying enough electrical energy to fry a grown man.

With each hit, the Bomberlord changes in colour, from its standard purple and almost-red, to actual red, to green, and then to a sort of broken yellow. It crashes to the ground, and for a moment Add thinks it's dead, but then its stomach acids churn up and its skin turns red.

"Oh, fuck."

The explosion rocks the terrain of Altera as three sets of pincers grab him by the back of his shirt and tug him backwards. He winces as he hits the ground hard, but he's alive and far enough away from the explosion to be unharmed. Dirt rides up the back of his shirt, but he's alive.

There's a shadow over him, and then another. Add realizes in shock that the Nasods have formed a clear ring around him, protecting him from the onslaught.

He raises a hand. The Dynamos whirr to life around him, but there are only four of them. Two must have been blown up by the Bomberlord, since only those four remain online. It's nowhere near enough to supply the electricity he needs for the incoming waves.

The ground is littered with glitter bodies, the oozing remains of Bomberlords, and still-shining Nasod corpses. The shielders are barely holding out, the aerial snipers are falling, and their little entourage is losing ground.

Add hates that he has to do this, but this is _his_ team, and they can't afford to lose now.

So he swallows down his pride and turns on his comms.

" _What a surprise,_ " Eve says sarcastically. " _How can I help you today, Mr. Grenore?_ "

"I need backup," he yells in reply, raising an arm. The electricity arcs through his Dynamos, forming a weak shield that knocks aside a single spell. "Like, now, preferably!"

" _Finally, he admits that he needs help. What do you need?_ "

"Would you stop being condescending for twenty seconds?" Add snatches an arrow out of the air and drops it quickly, crushing it underfoot. "I need a backup unit, stat, and all my backup Dynamos!"

He can literally _hear_ Eve's dry amusement. " _Affirmative. They have been deployed, along with new supplies. They should reach your position in a few minutes._ "

"Good." Add cuts off the comms and turns back to the pressing issue at hand. "Now come at me, bitches."

When the group of backup Nasods actually arrives with the Dynamos, Add is frying three Bomberlords all at once in an electric sheet. Originally, he'd set it up as a prism, but with only four Dynamos left, he has to make do.

"Awaiting orders," says one of the new Nasod. "What are your orders, Edward Grenore?"

Add winces at the use of his birth name. Only a few people truly know about it - Eve, who found it after taking a blood test; Chung, who surprisingly shares an equally well-kept secret name; and Ara, who he told when they reunited after Ran. "Attack all demon enemies," he instructs, "but leave the Bomberlords to me. Stay away from Bomberlords."

The new unit flashes in purple, his designated colour, to signify their understanding of the commands. They fall into place beside the original unit, like they were a part of the group the whole time. Shining blades flash out, ripping the heads off a line of glitters and sending black blood splashing into the air. Bullets find their targets in the hearts of necromancers. Add flicks a finger, and the backup Dynamos come to life.

Ten Dynamos at his beck and call. He's never had this much electricity running through him all at once before, and he's not entirely sure it's safe. He runs through the electrical settings of all ten Dynamos quickly, setting them all to a relatively low and manageable voltage and current. His max resistance before he feels electricity is pretty high already, but there's only so much redirecting of electricity he can manage before it fries him.

Taking in a deep breath, he authorizes operations on all ten.

Afterwards, he isn't able to recall what happened specifically. Ara asks him while they're cuddling in the morning, months later, what having ten Dynamos at once feels like. He doesn't know.

The truth of the matter is that having that much electricity all at once releases all his inhibitions. A bartender once offered to mix him "electric Kool-Aid", which he (not-so) politely refused.

If he'd taken up that offer for that drink, it might have produced similar results to his Dynamo-fueled battle fury.

When he finally finds a moment to breathe and give a deactivation order, there's no living demon in sight for miles, and black blood and guts cover the ground. The head of an incubus rolls to a stop at his feet, the tongue lolled out and blackened. Disembodied limbs and headless torsos lie strewn everywhere across the battlefield, all bearing the mark of a purple shock scar.

Add stumbles forwards, kicking the incubus head away to join his division of Nasods. "Good work, team," he tells them, grinning the best he can. "You can, uh, head back to the fortress if you're tired."

They continue standing on attention, because that's how Eve programmed them. Damn Nasods and their El cores. Why can't humans have inexhaustible energy sources?

Something shines in Add's eye, causing him to blink and put a hand over his eyes. He realizes with a start that it's actually just the sun, and the reason it had been blocked was because there was a very large portal in the way.

And now, the reason that portal is shrinking is because Ara is standing in front of it, surrounded by an aura of glowing orange energy. She's yelling something so intensely at that portal that it shrinks back at every word, coiling back in fear as she attacks it with magic and words alike.

Slowly, the demons stop dropping out of the sky as the portal closes up. Add is able to pick off the few that do easily - a Bomberlord that blows up a boulder, a Waldo that splatters out against the grass, a slender incubus that gets snapped in half when Ara fully closes the portal.

In the moment that Ara descends from the sky victorious, Add realizes three things.

One, that he is very, _very_ fortunate to have someone as graceful and powerful as Ara by his side.

Two, that sometime in the near future, he should probably ask her to marry him. If anything, it will give him more reasons to protect her and love her, and maybe - just maybe - they could start a family, one that isn't dysfunctional like theirs were.

And three, that Ara is a fucking goddess. She is surrounded by golden flickering flames. Her spear is bloody and blackened. The sun itself is the halo behind her head.

Add saves that image of her deep in his mind, prints it out and tacks it to his mental corkboard, pastes it to the inside of his metaphorical locker so every time he opens it, he'll see her. He posts it on all his metaphorical social media accounts, writes an essay about that moment, gives a Ted Talk about his revelation to an imaginary audience.

But maybe that's all happening in another universe. In this one, there are no lockers or social media accounts. Add is not a high school student in this lifetime. In this lifetime, he is a fighter, and he is willing to fight to the death for his lady.

The moment Ara steps off the platform, Add grabs her hand, pulls her towards him, and kisses her. He's just a little needy and possessive, after all, and more than a little proud of his powerful, beautiful girlfriend.

Ara, of course, steps towards him, letting her tongue flicker past his lips. When Add feels like he's going to run out of air and go to heaven with her at his side, they break away from each other, sweaty and bloody and tired.

"How are you doing?" She asks, smiling wearily. "Is it fun using ten Dynamos at once?"

"I…" Add frowns. "I have no clue."

Ara just laughs and kisses him again.

* * *

He goes to visit the Ponggos in the late afternoon, after things seem to be a little more under control.

A bunch of the portals closed up mysteriously by themselves around three in the afternoon, which was strange but reduced the number they needed to close significantly. While Aisha and Ara finish wiping the rest of the portals out, Chung and Elsword provide ground cover for the handful of demons still milling around.

It turns out the intense waves of demons that Add had faced came from the shores - shipments aboard cargo boards that unloaded while Elsword and Chung were in another part of the island perimeter. They came in droves, which is why he had such a hard time wading through them. Even back at the fortress, Eve was swamped with trying to provide cover fire.

Now that they finally have a moment to rest, Add visits his little friends in the bunkers beneath the fortress. They've begun digging their way down, because Ponggos are fond of doing that. Now, they take shifts helping Eve with matters above ground, gathering clean grass to operate the food machine, or simply resting underground.

He knows that two of them are completely preoccupied with something completely different, though. He's lucky to be able to catch at least one of them today.

"Good afternoon, Agatha," he says quietly, ducking under the low doorway. "I hope I'm not being disruptive."

"You better darned hope you aren't, pong," Agatha says, smiling weakly. "The little one here just fell asleep for the first time in two hours."

Add kneels next to the makeshift cradle that Eve hammered together out of a box and some old wagon wheels. In the dim light, he can just make out the sleeping, peaceful face of the tiny baby girl that Elsword and Aisha "saved" from the Hall of Water in Hamel. A tiny blue curl rests on her forehead, ahead of the rest of her equally fluffy hair.

Just looking at her makes him feel at peace, in a sense, but he knows there's no peace with her. The question of her heritage still goes unanswered, since the DNA tester that Eve uses doesn't really work with tiny babies. Regardless, her grey eyes and blue hair are a constant source of wonder. Aside from her crying, she seems to be pretty well behaved, which is surprising. Add thought a kid raised by demons couldn't possibly be good mannered, but he's been proven wrong time and time again.

He thinks about himself, when he was a kid, and he thinks to the future, to a future where there is peace and he can settle down with Ara, and sighs.

Both the past and the future are too different from the present, and both are much too far away.

Agatha, seeing his distress, misinterprets it and smiles. "She's quite a sweetheart. Has a lot of magic in her, pong."

Add freezes. "Magic?"

"Yes she does, pong!" Aida's sweet girlish voice drifts through the doorway as the tiny Ponggo walks in. "When she cries, her tears float and form strange shapes! And sometimes her body glows purple, pong!"

"Huh." Add ponders over this new information for a moment. "That's… hella weird. Have you told Queenie yet?"

"Her majesty Eve is busy fighting, pong," Aida says seriously. Sometimes Add forgets that she's the Ponggo equivalent of a twelve-year old, despite being notably good with children. "Although, I can tell her for you, pong!"

"No, it's alright." Add gets up, leans down into the cradle, and kisses the baby's forehead. She makes a soft noise in her sleep and sticks one chubby hand out of the blanket. "Have a nice nap, little Princess."

He bids Agatha and Aida farewell, and promises he'll be back as soon as he confirms the baby's heritage. The moment he exits the room, however, a large chunk of metal collides with him.

"Add?" Eve looks contemplative. "Gah, I'll bring you along, then. Not that you'll be of much use."

"What do you mean, not of much use?" Add demands as Eve grabs his wrist and runs for the hills. "Where are we even going?"

"To the coast," she says. "My scout drones have informed me that Elesis and Ignia have returned under the dark blue flag. I'm recalling the others back to the castle. I should have liked to bring Ara instead, since she's definitely superior to you in terms of diplomacy, but you'll have to do for now."

She drags him out all the way to the old rocky cliff. Alteran legend has it that a princess of Velder once jumped off this cliff to her death in the sea because she didn't want to get married to a Nasod. Add isn't very enthusiastic about visiting this cliff in particular, but for whatever reason, the demons chose this as their rendezvous point.

"Congrats on making it to day two!" Ignia exclaims with false sincerity when they arrive. "So now if you surrender, we'll have no choice but to execute you!"

"Tempting offer, but no thanks," Add tells her. "Queenie, tell them how we deal with shitheads visiting the island."

Eve glares at him. "I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that I gave you permission to speak," she snarks. "Regardless, surrendering is not an option, and neither is losing."

She turns to the demon generals. "And once again, welcome to my island!" She says mockingly, shaking her head at Ignia. "If you surrender now, I may consider not enslaving you and your entire people to restore my empire!"

Elesis smiles. "She's got a point there, Ignia."

The former fire priestess looks rather angered. "We came here to convince you to surrender, not to barter for ourselves," she snarls. "I'm gonna give you one last warning: surrender now."

"And I decide I'd rather not, I would not like to surrender now," Eve counters. "I have a lot to do and a lot to get done, so I'd advise you to move along now. It would be a shame to execute you for being a threat to the empire of Altera. We do have a very luxurious prison system."

Ignia looks like she's about to blow up Mount Flame a second time. "Just because you can close the portals doesn't mean you're any stronger than us," she screams as Eve walks away, and Add had no choice but to follow along. "You're nothing, little queen of the Nasod, NOTHING! And nothing can prepare you for what's coming next!"

Eve frowns, like she's hearing some sort of fly or something deemed equally useless. "Head back to the fortress," she tells Add. "I'll-"

A light starts flashing on her arm, and she freezes. "That's the emergency comm in Chung's Freiturnier," she realizes, answering the message.

" _Miss Eve, we've been led into a trap!"_

"What kind of trap? How bad is it?"

Chung exhales loudly. " _Giant portal about half the size of the fortress. It's huge and Aisha literally can't put a dent in it. She says the necromancers making it are at too close of a range. There's a huge group of necromancers on the island right now, and one of you needs to track it down and hold it back while the rest of us try to take down the glitters from the portal."_

"What about the other?" Add asks. "Why only one person to take a cohort of necromancers?"

" _Because we're fucking swamped here,_ " Chung snaps. " _Eve, we really need you to authorize deployment for another thousand or so Nasod. We're losing ground here!_ "

"Alright. Add, get to it," Eve orders. "We'll keep comms up to communicate with you when you locate them." She hesitates. "I'm afraid there may be no way to send you reinforcements, though, if the fortress is surrounded…"

"Don't worry about it," Add says quickly. "I'll handle it."

He waves his hand, and his Dynamos whirl around him, the original four returning to their original places in his transport setup while two out of the six spares fill the empty spaces. The remaining four spares hover around him protectively, ready to generate electricity on command. "Good luck," he says to Chung and Eve. "You'll need it."

The Dynamos zip off, with him in tow. His satellite coordinates map out each person's location - Ara on the west fortress wall, Chung standing near the east side, Elsword rolling across the south, and Aisha standing in front of the looming portal.

For the first time in a year, Add feels like the world is actually about to crash down around him, but he keeps going towards the coordinates of the huge group on his map.

"Holy fuck," he mutters, eyes widening as he comes into visual range of the necromancers. It's not just necromancers at this point - a cohort's worth of demons, numbering at least five hundred, surrounding a cloud of necromancers. All of them stand on attention on the edge of the bluffs, close enough to the edge to be pushed off, but far enough away to not push themselves off.

Add knows the portals from the morning and the day before only take about five necromancers to sustain. This portal, on the other hand, is being fed into by _at least_ a hundred necromancers. Even with ten Dynamos at hand, there's no way he can destroy them.

Add doesn't need to kill them all, though. He just needs to stall for time, to ensure the others at the fortress can clean things up safely. He flicks his finger outwards, telling his Dynamos to begin generating electricity, and charges.

Glitter bodies go flying. An unholy shriek rises in the group, and for a moment, Add can see things starting to turn around. He knocks a glitter's chin up with his elbow and sends an electric kick to its throat, then turns around and rips the wand out of a necromancer's hand to beat it over the head.

The comms flicker back to life. " _Add, return to the fortress right this instant,_ " Eve yells. " _We need an offensive takedown to the side._ "

"I'm taking down the portal manually," he snaps, ramming the wand into some random glitter's mouth and kicking it aside. "You can troubleshoot the program, I'm pulling the plug!"

" _This is urgent, Add!_ " Chung shouts. He sounds close to tears. " _One of the Waldos caught Ara in the back, and she's down for the count. You_ need _to come back right this instant!_ "

He nearly freezes right there as guilt fills his lungs and stomach and starts to swamp his surroundings. _He's failed Ara, again._ Instead, he screams, replacing that guilt with raw plasma as the Dynamos whirl around like insane pinwheels.

" _Edward Grenore! I am ordering this, as the Queen of Altera. Retreat to the fortress right now or I swear to Adrian Nasod, I will march down there and make you retreat myself!_ "

" _We don't have enough people or time for this, Add!_ " Chung warns. " _Hold on a second-_ "

There's a boom through the comms and in real time as Chung fires his shell and lets it rain down upon the glitters. " _Eve, do your magnetic explosion thing!"_

The comms buzz, and then Chung is screeching. " _Oh my god, do that again!_ "

" _My magnetism has a cooldown. Add, we are running out of options. I'm not going to say it again. Get back to the fucking fortress."_

In that moment, Add weighs his options.

There's no telling how long it'll take for him to reach the fortress, nor if the necromancers will reconvene and expand the portal again by the time he does. If he leaves now for the fortress, there's no way any of them will live. They'll all die by the light of the sunset, and Altera will be no more. If he stays and fights, they might have a chance. Right now, his new priority is ending that portal, and to end that portal, he needs a surefire way to kill all those necromancers.

He glances towards the cliff. There's a beach underneath that he knows of. If he could time it just right, if he isn't crushed by the demons, if a million other things could go right, then he could save them all, kill the cohort of demons and manage to survive.

But right now, his own survival isn't as important. As long as Ara is safe, he'll have protected her.

"Eve, Chung, are you still there?" He asks loudly, Dynamos whirring to life again.

" _Yes. Why are you not en route to the fortress?_ "

"I need you two to promise me something important. If I don't make it, I _need_ you to take care of Ara for me."

Chung gasps. " _Add, you can't possibly-_ "

"PROMISE ME!"

" _Get back here right now! Whatever you are planning, it's too dangerous-"_

Add shuts his comms off, turning back to the task at hand.

Is he ready to die? Maybe. He's failed Ara again, and this is the only way now he can still save her. If he dies, so be it. As long as she lives, he's happy.

Plasma begins to wrap around his feet as he calls upon an electrical pattern that he'd only used twice before - once, to kill the demon Ran, and once in an accident that destroyed the town of Twin Watchtowers. He summons to mind that image of Ara, bathed in sunlight and golden flame, and finds only enough courage to initiate that electric pattern.

Demons near the edge start to fall as the cliff collapses under the strain of a thousand million amps of electricity. Add smiles. Just a few more moments, and his job will be complete. Ara will be safe in that fortress. He has no regrets about doing this.

As the earth begins to crumble beneath his feet, though, Add wishes he could have seen her again.

* * *

 **A/N: this chapter of Jailbreak is brought to you by working through pretty much all my classes to try and finish this chapter after last week's anxiety**

 **to answer the inevitable question of "is Add dead?" all i can offer is** **( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).**

 **thank you for flying air Jailbreak now back to our regularly scheduled chem lesson**

 **~Marg**


	4. The Siege (III)

JAILBREAK

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 4

 _I escaped from the tiny crack that opened up as the ceiling gave way_

 **TW: Blood and violence. Proceed with caution.**

In Aisha's dream, she isn't a mage, but a schoolteacher.

Dream Aisha's hair is longer, and is bunched up in two drooping pigtails that rest on her shoulders. Dream Aisha is a little taller, standing in a pair of strange high-heeled shoes. Dream Aisha is not clothed in purple and black, but a purple woolen sweater dress, accompanied by a soft white jacket.

The thing that really separates Dream Aisha from the Aisha in reality is that a golden ring sits sparkling on her ring finger. Dream Aisha is married, and probably has been for a long time.

To whom, Aisha doesn't want to know.

The classroom has an open window, through which the scent of clean grass and sunshine wafts in. Aisha takes in a breath and inhales the scent of fresh air, untainted by the demon stench. She is standing in front of a blackboard, and rows of students sit in silence in front of her, scribbling furiously down notes about her topic.

Aisha turns around to face the blackboard. It seems to be a lecture about the use of circles in spells, which she has a fair amount of knowledge on. Geometric constructs are a crucial part of her training, after all.

A girl in the front row raises her hand. "Yes, Rienne?" Aisha asks automatically.

Rienne looks down at her notes, and suddenly Aisha shivers because her intense glare _looks just like Rena._ "Say… You cast a spell in a circular format," she says. "I know we learned that the easiest way to break a circular spell is with a linear spell. If, for example, we were to try and _reverse_ the spell instead, what shape would be the best?"

Aisha thinks for a moment. "You'd need to split the circle with an equilateral polygon," she says. "But all the vertices of the polygon would have to touch the edge of the circle spell, while achieving minimal contact with the circle. So, I'd say the best shaped spell to reverse a circular spell is…"

"A triangular spell," Aisha gasps, sitting up in her bed. "Oh my god, why didn't I think of this earlier?"

She rolls out of bed, not caring that her legs are freezing in the still night air, and looks around. Her staff rests against the wall, but it's not significantly useful to her. Right now, she needs that sheet of paper where she wrote down the configuration of the portal spell.

It's become easier for her to determine how magical constructs are made now, especially after Angkor began teaching her how to look at magic differently. Shapes, colours, words, they all go into the creation of each magical construct, and with a little bit of calculation, Aisha can analyse each. She takes bits and pieces of spells from the enemies she faces, and uses them for her own. Call her greedy, call her a thief, but it works against the demons.

Aisha finds a sheet of parchment tucked in her pack, as well as a quill and an almost-empty bottle of ink. Tilting the bottle upwards, she's able to catch the few remaining drops of ink on her quill and begin writing her new counter-incantation.

On the other side of the room, Elsword stirs on his bed. "Aisha, the fuck are you doing?" He mumbles, sitting up. "It's, like, four in the morning. What are you trying to do?"

"I'm saving all of us and our sorry asses," she snaps, continuing to write. Her hands are cold and her words are messy, and to make matters worse, she's running out of ink. "I'm gonna destroy the demons and prevent Altera from getting crushed, all at once. It's gonna be fucking great."

Elsword is silent for a moment. "Alright." He snorts. "Just don't complain when you wake up groggy in the morning."

Aisha scribbles down shapes, colours, words, even numbers at some point. Magic is a blueprint, and she is its architect. It's not entirely coherent, but it'll get the job done.

She grins at the sheet of parchment and lays it on the nightstand next to the bed, then promptly topples over onto the bed and passes out.

* * *

When she wakes up again, it's to the sound of sharp knocking on the door. "Uh, Elsword, Aisha, are you up?"

Elsword rolls over, groaning. "No," he grumbles into his pillow. "Go away, Chung. You're not my mom."

Chung laughs from the other side of the door. "I'd hope not. I don't think I could handle a kid like you." He pauses for a moment to catch his breath. "Anyways, I'll be heading on to breakfast. Come join us if you still want some."

That catches Aisha's attention quickly. Ignoring the fact that she's apparently been sleeping with half her body off the bed, she slips off, finding her clothes in a pile in the corner of the room, and the piece of parchment on the nightstand where she left it.

"Oh, wow, you actually wrote something," Elsword comments, walking over with a comb in hand. His hair is ridiculously frazzled, and a good portion is draped over his side shave. "What's the spell supposed to be? You said something about destroying the demons… I think."

"That is the idea, yes," she tells him. Her handwriting is barely legible, and there are a lot of offhand abbreviations that she's made. She'll have to rewrite it sometime soon if she wants to use it. "The portal right now is monodirectional, and very concentrated so that a group can enter on the shore and exit on Altera. The connection between the necromancers there and here must be amazing, for them to keep up this kind of construct over a prolonged period of time…"

Elsword clears his throat. "Uh, in Elrian please?"

Aisha rolls her eyes, but tries to think of a good analogy. "You know the valve they put on a barrel for whiskey," she explains, "the ones they use while the whiskey is still fermenting? It's kind of like that."

"Oh." Elsword's eyes light up. "So the air can only come out, and it can't go in and screw up the whiskey."

"That's the idea," Aisha agrees. "Right now, that portal is acting like a one-way valve, but because we can't directly attack _all_ the necromancers summoning it, we'll have to change the way the spell is cast. This spell-" She waves the piece of parchment around. "- Will turn that one-way valve into a two-way valve, so we can, in a sense, pour the whiskey out."

"So we'll be able to attack the demons on the other side through the portal, as well," Elsword concludes. "I like that."

"That's the idea. Now, we'll have a way to deal equal damage back to the demons." Aisha beams at him. "It'll put us on slightly more even ground, but I'll have to refine the incantation first." She grimaces at the scribbled words on the parchment.

Elsword laughs. "Yeah. I hope you do, because that doesn't look very legible." He traces his finger over a few of the words. _Purple? Green. TRIANGLE! 12048, 29105, 60221._ "Go ahead to breakfast. I'm gonna clean up the room a little."

Aisha raises an eyebrow. "You mean you're gonna preen yourself in front of the mirror for the next two hours?"

He just laughs again, pushing her playfully.

When she heads to the conference room, Eve is standing next to the whirring food machine. "Good morning, Aisha," she says, her eyes narrowed at the machine. "Are you here to retrieve your portion of breakfast?"

Aisha blinks. "Yeah. What's up?"

Eve sighs as the machine produces one (1) serving of pristine scrambled eggs, buttered toast and sizzling bacon. "Could you spare a bit of time and bring some to Ara?" She asks. "She has been shutting us all out. I am… Worried for her wellbeing. She is used to back injury, but I am worried that she cannot take Add's disappearance well."

It had happened all so quickly the night before. One moment, Aisha was standing next to Ara, the two chanting desperately in unison to try and close that monstrous portal. The next, the portal was gone, but Ara was on a stretcher with the head of a spear stuck in her back, and Eve was screaming into a microphone, cursing out Add.

"I'll go see if I can talk to her," she says, taking the plate and the fork that Eve hands her. "Is her door locked?"

"Most likely," Eve tells her. "You may need to teleport in."

As she walks back down the hallway towards the bedrooms, Elsword comes out of their shared room. "Woah," he says. "Can I have some?"

Aisha wordlessly gestures to the locked door of Ara and Add's room.

Elsword's smile fades. "Oh." He ducks aside. "Good luck."

As expected, the door of the room is locked. "Leave me alone, Chung, I'll be down to breakfast in a moment," Ara says from inside. She sounds like she's been crying.

Aisha takes in a breath and lets magic wrap around her. Teleportation is easier than ever now, because instead of travelling through tangible space, she can travel through the void - through shadows. In daylight, it doesn't work as well, so she sticks to mana-based teleportation. However, in the dim light of the fortress, she can warp into the room with ease, simply stepping into the void and then stepping out.

Ara is sitting on the bed, her back propped up on a flat board. Pillows cushion her from every angle, but there's a noticeable empty space next to her, where Add usually is. "Good morning, Aisha," she says, trying to compose her own voice a little. "Welcome to my humble abode."

"I…" Aisha tries to not stare at the purple t-shirt in her hands, the blueprints and contraptions that line the wall. "I brought you breakfast."

"Ah." Ara smiles weakly. "Thank you. I'm not too hungry right now, but could you please put it here?"

Aisha sets the plate down on the nightstand by her side. "Thank you." Ara pauses for a moment, deep in thought. "Any more news on Add?"

She shakes her head. "A storm has kicked up just off the coast," she says softly. "And we're on the third day of the siege now. I'm sorry, Ara. We can't do anything to search the cliff now."

Ara exhales slowly, lowering her eyes. "No. I should be apologizing. I spent yesterday worrying about where your loyalties lie, you and Elsword. I was scared that you'd led us into a trap. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Aisha tells her, reaching out to pat her hand. "Sometimes we need to doubt ourselves to see where we can go further." She grins. "And see, we're going further already! We get stronger with every time we're knocked down."

She stops for a moment to compose herself, having switched to autopilot mode sometime in the first sentence. "Add is not dead, I'm sure of it," she says, dropping her voice back down to a normal range. "He's gonna come back, and both of you are gonna get stronger and kick some demon ass!"

Ara stares at her for a moment before breaking out into light giggling. "Thank you, Aisha," she says. "That's a good mindset. You should hold onto it. Thank you for spreading it to me, too."

"What are friends for?" Aisha says. She leans forwards to give Ara a quick hug, avoiding her back. "Eat up, alright? Eve's holding a conference soon, and I'd hate for you to just pass out in the middle of it because you didn't eat and you don't have enough energy."

" _That's right_." Ara's hairpin lights up in red, signifying Eun's appearance. " _Ara, see what I told you? Even if you're grieving, you still need to eat, especially in your current condition. You need to keep up your energy._ "

"Ah, Lord Eun," Aisha says, bowing quickly. "Please watch over Ara while we're out in battle!"

" _Only if Angkor watches over you._ "

The little white bat that Aisha's patron chooses as his preferred form pops up beside her. "On it!" He chirps. "Stay safe, you too!"

Aisha feels something invisible pressing on her back, steering her towards the door. "Time to go!" Angkor chitters, continuing to push her forwards. "You need to eat, too! You're gonna be on the battlefield for hours on end, you're gonna need energy!"

She barely has enough time to wave a hasty goodbye to Ara before the door closes behind her. "Angkor, was that really necessary?" She chides. "You've probably scared poor Ara. She's been through a lot already, don't traumatize her any more than she already is!"

Angkor shivers. "Yeah, but Lord Eun is scary," he argues, flapping his tiny white wings furiously. "My point still stands, you need to eat breakfast."

Aisha sighs. There really is no way to argue against him. "Fine."

She returns to the conference room, where Elsword and Chung are having a lively conversation about weaponry. "Your cannon is probably better for crashing into things," Elsword notes. "Don't you feel, I dunno, under equipped without your cannon?"

Chung hums. "Not really," he muses. "I'm actually quite comfortable with just my Silver Shooters, now that I've been training with them for so long. I need to reload less, so I'm dragged down less." He grins. "The Freiturnier does most of the crashing."

Aisha rolls her eyes, but smiles fondly. "Hey. Do either of you know how to operate the food machine?

Chung's eyes light up. "Oh! Of course, Miss Aisha. Here - "

He grabs a plate from a nearby stack, placing it directly into the machine through a slot, and then presses a button. The machine whirrs louder and a few lights blink wildly. Steam bursts out of a pipe in the top. A little mechanical platform lowers itself down into the retrieval chute, bearing the plate of steaming breakfast.

"And here you go," he says, handing it to Aisha. "There's a little bin of forks there. Go ahead and take one."

She does. The toast is a little bland, but it's filling and the texture isn't bad. She makes a sandwich with the bacon and the toast, which balances out nicely since the bacon has a pretty high sodium content. The scrambled eggs, however, feel like tasteless cheese curds. Not even ketchup can save them.

Aisha wonders what went into the chemical structuring of these eggs, because the ones from the day before were fine. She shrugs and finishes them off anyways, because at this point any food is going to go a long way towards preserving her strength through the day.

It's still way too early in the morning for this. Eve set all their alarms an entire hour back, just so they wouldn't see a rerun of yesterday's morning rush. Now, in the nether hours before five thirty, Aisha is already fully outfitted and on edge for battle.

They still have to wash the dishes by hand, regardless of time or circumstance. In the kitchen, Eve is carefully drying off her own plate. "Hello, Aisha," she says. "Were you able to speak to Ara?"

"Yeah," Aisha replies. "She's doing better now… I think."

"Good." Eve sets the plate on the counter. "Thank you, Aisha."

Aisha attempts to smile, but it's weak and emotionless. "What for?"

Eve blinks. "You came to Altera to warn us before the demons struck," she says, like it's obvious. "You've been pushing yourself harder than all of us. And you've been nothing but kind to all of us, even though we mistreated you the moment you arrived on this island.

"Especially Ara. She's been through a lot," she continues, "and losing Add is going to hurt her a great deal. I know she had her… Hesitations when it came to you. She has her fears, as well. Altera may very well be the only home she's had in a long time."

"How so?" Aisha ponders. "Did she spend a long time on the run?"

"Yes, or at least something similar. Her brother was the demon earl Ran," Eve says quietly. Aisha's eyes widen in shock. "She was a freedom fighter much like you and Elsword for a long time, searching for her brother, until she met Add."

She smiles, but it's mechanical and cold. "They met in a bar in Bethma. That is all I really know of how they met, but I do know that afterwards, I met Ara for the first time after Chung was captured by In and Jin. They became permanent travel partners afterwards, until the fall of Velder's Hope Bridge." She blinks. "Ara was killed in that battle, but Eun was able to resurrect her.

"From there, I believe Ara found out that Add was wanted by the Velder government for accidentally destroying a town in Elder several years ago," she says. "To protect Ara, Add left her to recover alone. They spent a month apart. Ara came to speak to me, but then returned to Velder to seek a pardon from Add, who returned to his solitary ways and tried to help Lanox in the aftermath of Mount Flame."

Eve takes Aisha's plate from her, bathing it under the tap before reaching for the soapy sponge. "I believe both of them turned to alcohol as an escape during that month. I cannot say anything for myself, since my mechanical body does not react well to alcohol, but knowing that the two of them met in a bar, I'm pretty certain that they both had a tendency to rely on alcohol to hide their dependency on each other."

Aisha's mouth drops open as she thinks back to a year ago, when she and Elsword were in Ruben recovering in the aftermath of the liberation of Feita. "Ara was the girl in Adams's bar," she realizes in silent shock. "The one who was crying about the friend she'd lost. The one Elsword said was either super drunk, or in the state of withdrawal."

She hadn't made the connection before, but she does now. Ara, with her golden eyes and healthy black hair, screaming about Add, _her_ Add. Ara, who collapsed on the table crying for a friend who wasn't there. Ara, who fell asleep waiting for Add to find her in her drunken state.

Ara, who is broken and bedridden right now, waiting for him to come home.

"Yes. You see, Ara is what I believe you humans call a "miracle worker"," Eve says. "She was able to change Add for the better, within the span of three months. He is still a nuisance to deal with now, but his sarcastic nature is much less concentrated than it was before he met Ara. The only reason I tolerate his presence on my island is because he gives Ara a reason to live. But the inverse is also true. She has changed him greatly, and it has made him a more reasonable person."

"Do you think we'll find him?" Aisha asks. "Alive, hopefully?"

Eve snorts. "He'll live, for Ara's sake if anything." She looks down at the plate in her hands, which has garnered a large mass of bubbles from her constant scrubbing. "Thank you once again Aisha, for all your help here." The corners of her mouth lift up. "If you ever need a place to call home, or simply somewhere to seek refuge, Altera has its arms open to you and Elsword."

Aisha grins at her. "Thank you for hosting us after we popped up on your island," she says, patting Eve on the back. "I'm gonna go… Uh, scout out the battlefield. Just in case there's, I dunno, demons out there."

"Go ahead. Stay safe."

The first place Aisha goes is, surprisingly, the broken cliff. The dirt and a good portion of the rock has crumbled away, gathering on the beach beneath. There's no visible signs of life; the only colours in the debris belong to the clods of grass that aren't stained in demon blood.

Aisha floats gently to the bottom of the cliff, avoiding the pieces that are still loose and in danger of falling, and comes to rest in ankle-height water. She's not worried, though - her shoes are pretty repellant of most liquids, mostly for easy cleanup.

It's not just the land that's been defiled with the presence of demons. Altera's earth may have been drowned in demon blood, but there are swirls of black in the water that stain the peace of the ocean. Black blood continues to seep out from beneath the pile of rubble on the beach. Aisha knows the sand of that beach will be blackened for generations to come.

She looks at the remains of Add's plasma burst from the day before and sighs. She'd be lying if she said she hadn't been wary of Add the whole time, but Eve is right. For Ara's sake, they have to hope he's alive, even if there's no way to clear out the debris at the moment.

Raising her staff towards the pile, Aisha sends out thin tendrils of her magic, reaching between the rocks and clumps of soil to search for Add. His aura lingers all around the rocks, as well as the energy from his explosive final attack, but there's no way to tell where in the mess he is, or if he's alive or not. The only response she's getting is dead demons, and even then the feedback is hazy.

Aisha sighs. News like this will have to be kept under wraps until Ara is healed, but her heart aches for the other girl. Losing a lover can't be easy, after all.

Something moves on top of the cliff. Aisha looks up to find Eve, waving at her. "Aisha," she says, voice amplified so that it echoes over the cliff, "I am in need of your assistance."

She waves her wand, drawing in the remaining shadow from the morning clouds, and blinks herself back to the top of the cliff. "What can I do for you?" She asks, stamping her feet to get rid of the blood.

"Elesis and Ignia are here again," says the queen. "They are armed and they have come under the black flag. Would you please come with me as a diplomat?"

Aisha scratches her head. "Ah, wouldn't Chung be better for something like this? I mean, he was a prince, right?"

"I suppose he would," Eve muses, "but the outside world is not aware that he is alive. If he is comfortable with it, I may bring him along as a diplomat someday. Today, however, is of the utmost importance, and I believe your incredible memorization and observation skills may be of use."

"Alrighty, then," Aisha says, smiling. "I'll tag along, in case we need to jot something down or make a quick escape."

They trek through the black grass, shaking demon guts off their boots as they go along. The bodies of the demons lie in clumps, in the areas where particularly heavy battles happened. A handful of Nasod went and burned a few of the groups to clear the mess, but there's still a significant amount of death that stains the earth of Altera.

Elesis and Ignia are in full demonic armor. Elesis continues to wield that terrific red cutlass of hers, while Ignia seems to have equipped herself with a double-ended spear not unlike Ara's. They stand under a rippling black flag, like angels of death, and they look like they're ready to kill Aisha and Eve any moment now.

"Good morning," Elesis says quietly as they approach, holding out a hand for Eve to shake. "Congratulations on making it to the third day of the siege. You are a tactician and warrior most honourable, Queen Eve."

"And you, General Sieghart," Eve says, taking her hand. "Your skills as a fighter are quite admirable."

The ghost of a smile appears on Elesis's face. "Alas, as much as I'd like to sit and discuss war with you, that is not the purpose of our visit," she says. "Today, the black flag is raised. If you are to be defeated or to surrender today, the entire island of Altera will be destroyed, and all its peoples executed. If fighting does not cease today, then we will continue to attack until Altera is burned to nothing."

Eve dips her head. "Thank you, General. I assure you, we will hold out on our own."

Ignia laughs out loud. "With what? Are all your little friends hiding in the castle?" She gasps in mock surprise. "Oh wait, one is injured, and the other is presumed dead! You're down two of your most powerful players, your highness. Maybe it's about time you started begging for mercy instead of flaunting yourself and your powers."

Aisha has to nudge Eve to remind her to not blow up in Ignia's face. "It is true that my bishops may be down," she admits, "but my rook - my fortress - is strong, and my knights have a well-formulated defense set up around it."

She glares pointedly at Ignia. "Furthermore, did you forget who I am? Before all else, _I am the queen_ , and I am the deadliest playing piece in this game of chess. I blew up the one chariot you did have and used it against you yesterday. Do not attempt to insult me, Ignia Mavros. You have been cast from grace for too long."

Ignia turns red, but shakes it off easily. "We have here a final proposition," she says. "You surrender to the demon empire now, and we'll leave Altera's people in peace, while all of you come fight for us. You keep going today, that offer's off the table."

"Then take it off the table." Eve looks like she's made a game-changing decision. "I should not like to sacrifice the freedom of my empire and my friends for my own selfish desires to live. Thank you, but I will have to decline."

She glances at Aisha. "Let us return to the Core."

As she turns around to follow, though, Aisha hears Ignia growl under her breath and flick her wrist. "Eve!" She yelps, no set plan in mind as she turns in an attempt to counter Ignia's flaming spear, and swipes her wand towards it.

A hoop of void energy lashes out, clashing with the spear and knocking skywards. Eve catches it between two fingers as she stomps down, sending a wave of steel fragments towards the demon generals. "Aisha, now!"

Without thinking, Aisha grabs her by the shoulders, gathers the mana around them, and tugs on that rope pulling her back.

She opens her eyes to Elsword and Chung's surprised faces, their breakfast plates pushed aside and weapons hastily grabbed. "Are you guys okay?" Elsword asks, eyes wide. "What did you see out there?"

"Your sister," Aisha says breathlessly, finally dropping her protective stance and her grip on Eve. "Orders, Eve?"

She's silent for a while. "Bob, Kevin, Stuart," she decides, turning to three Nasod guards standing nearby, "go find Ara and bring her here."

They cheer and dash off. Clearly Ara's made friends with some of the more mechanical Alteran citizens.

"The rest of you, prepare yourselves," Eve continues. "I'm going to hold a conference. Properly, this time."

The group of them reconvene in the meeting room about five minutes later, after the dishes have been washed and everyone has their weapons. Eve finds her place at the head of the table as always, but does not sit. Instead, she tosses Ignia's blazing spear onto the table, letting it clatter to a stop near the hologram platform.

"If this wasn't a declaration of war, I don't know what is," she says. "And so war they shall have. As you can probably tell, we are down two of our leading fighters, which puts us at a disadvantage."

Ara bows her head in silence. The three Nasod guards are wordless and blank, but even so, Aisha can feel the grief they radiate alongside her.

"However, we have a secret weapon on our side," Eve says, turning. "Aisha has created an incantation to reverse-engineer the portals. With it, we can turn the tide of the battle to our benefit.

"Chung. You will come with me into the depths of the Core. I fear that we may be in need of reactivating at least two of my ancient brethren, the ones who have been asleep for longer than I have. At least I know that they will still answer to me, since their commands were never altered."

"On it, Miss Eve," Chung replies, shouldering his Destroyer.

"Aisha, Elsword. The fate of this fortress - no, this empire - rests on your shoulders." Eve's eyes are intense, like she's trying to bore a hole into Aisha's soul. "The first wave of demons will be appearing in eight minutes and forty-three seconds from now. Your job is to hold off that first wave for as long as you can, until we can send in some of the ancients to assist you. Meanwhile, Ara will stay in the fortress and act as a command centre. Ara, I will give you the authority to deploy groups of Nasod as you see fit.

"As much as I hate to admit it, this is our last stand." Eve rises from her seat, solemn and cold. "Altera is home to thousands of innocent people. For their sake, we _cannot_ lose."

* * *

"Do you think we'll be able to save the island?" Elsword asks, dragging his sword in the ruined grass behind him. "Like, do you think we'll be able to hold out against the demons? I mean, we kinda brought the war to Altera."

Aisha scoffs. "How so?"

"Well, when we came here, two days ago, we were immediately followed by fighting and demons," he explains, "and if you think about it, aren't they after the baby that we took and brought here?"

"So are you suggesting that we should hand the little Princess over to the demons?" Aisha counters.

Elsword goes red all over, from his face to the tips of his ears. "No! But, uh, I guess in a sense the war followed us to Altera? So we sort of gotta clear things up."

Aisha thinks for a moment. "We have to," she says quietly. "We have to win. The only thing left we can save is hope. Altera is one of the last beacons of hope left. As long as we don't give up hope, we'll win this."

Elsword gives her his hand to shake, and she takes it - a last moment to register their teamwork before they rush into battle. Both of them could be dead by the end of the day, and if so, they need to say their goodbyes. They've been working together for five years, holding out on their own against the demons. They were there together when Berthe fell in the liberation of Feita, and they were both involved in the execution of Madman Joaquin.

In the end, they're friends as much as they are teammates. One gains that title after working together for five years, after all. Even if Aisha's childhood dreams of finding love never come true, she wouldn't mind spending her life fighting with Elsword. For all their bickering, after all, they're still friends at the core.

"Aisha," Elsword says, rather urgently, "turn around. Right now."

She complies-

\- And her jaw immediately drops as she sees the huge new portal that has swallowed the sky.

At first, she thinks she must be hallucinating. The new portal has got to be half the size of the island as a whole, at least ten times the size of the one from the day before. There are eldritch monstrosities flooding out of its every crevice, drowning the sky and the sea and the land in darkness and terror.

"Elsword, we need to go stop them," she realizes, as the demons begin to near the fortress. "We need to fucking stop them!"

They're too far away for them to intercept directly, so Aisha looks for shadows. Thankfully, the demons themselves are beings of shade, and she finds her void everywhere. It's not a pleasant thought. "Get ready to attack," she yells, grabbing Elsword by the arm and reaching into the darkness.

As soon as she feels the bodies starting to press in, she lets go of his arm, hears the sound of Conwell donating his power in the form of another shimmering blade. She turns her attention to the demons around her - glitters, incubi and succubi, necromancers of every size, Waldos, Bomberlords, even some that she can't name. Remembering Eve's advice about forcing a black hole into existence, she takes a deep breath.

 _One must force gravitational attraction to a single point at one's pleasure._

Aisha spins around, knocking the head off a glitter with the wing on her staff, and raises her weapon into the air. She pushes all her energy into that point over her head, opening the dimensional void and pulling demons from all around towards her. They fly into her black hole (an actual black hole!) and disappear past the event horizon, their screams fading into oblivion.

By the time the black hole finally explodes, spewing chunks of black flesh in every direction, Eve and Chung have come to the battlefield, the latter with his visor flipped up. "Heads up," he screams, planting his Destroyer over the head of a Waldo and launching himself into the air, shooting a string of rockets down at the demons. "Eve, you ready?"

Eve raises her arms over her head, a symbol and a string of text appearing briefly in her hands before the blades that are all too familiar spread out like a peacock's tail over her back. "Initiating battle operation: Lunatic Scud," she yells, thrusting a hand into the air. "All securities unlocked!"

"Locking on targets," Chung shouts over the din. Suddenly, a series of tiny red crosshairs dance across the battlefield, settling on demons everywhere. "Open fire!"

A hole opens above Eve, like a connection to another dimension. Out of it drops guns, _so many guns,_ and they all open fire as she whirls around directing them like the conductor of an explosive orchestra. Meanwhile, Chung smashes his Destroyer into the ground again, then holds it steady as he fires a million missiles, each seeking out the rotting hearts of the marked demons.

It clears some space around them, but the portal is still wide open, and waiting for more demons to come is certain death. "Ara Haan, do you copy?" Eve yells, furiously grabbing a spear from her back. "Do you copy?"

" _I copy, Eve! Is everyone alright?_ "

"We're all alive, but we could use some backup!" Chung shouts, voice muffled by his visor. "How many of the Nasod can you spare right now?"

" _Maybe about a thousand, considering how Ignis and Leviathan are doing most of the heavy work. I'm trying to keep their generators from freezing and overheating, but I - ah!_ "

"ARA!" Eve grits her teeth. "El be damned, I'm not going down without a fight!"

Around them all, the remnants of Chung's shells shiver on bloody ground and rise into the air, fashioning themselves into sharp, deadly weapons of destruction as Eve's magnetism activates in her rage. "Get moving! _We're not going to lose today!_ "

Aisha raises her staff into the air, recalling powers and incantations. "Go forth," she yells, pushing Angkor's energy to its most _annoying_ form. "Petit Angkor!"

The bat god appears over her head, mouth wide open as a million tiny bats emerge from him and latch onto demons. They screech and fall to the ground, writhing in pain as poison enters their bloodstreams through a tiny bat bite. Soon, they're still, and Aisha moves on to cutting down the next group.

And yet the waves just keep coming. Elsword calls forth a billion piercing blades of Conwell that slice through demons, each piercing through to find its next target. Chung releases a single bullet that bounds among a squadron of incubi, putting holes in each and staining the once silver bullet black. Aisha plunges her staff into the ground, causing a spinning rock to erupt from beneath the Alteran earth and shred a Waldo to nothing.

But they keep coming, and none of them can hold on.

"Aisha, you need to get that incantation ready," Eve yells as she comes back-to-back with the mage. "We _need_ to fight back somehow, take them down at their base!"

"I - holy fuck, I left the incantation in the fortress," Aisha realizes. "Can you cover for me? I need to go get it!"

"It's kind of hard to cover for anything here," Elsword growls, pushing his dual blades against the hammer of a glitter. "Hurry up and go!"

"Ara, we really need reinforcements!"

" _They're on their way, but I don't know how far they can get!_ "

Ignoring it all, Aisha thinks of the bedroom where her incantation is. She thinks of the drawn curtains and the rest of the lifeless room, and she steps into the void.

Lo and behold, the stupid sheet of parchment is still on the nightstand. Aisha stumbles as she grabs it - maybe such a concentrated teleport might have been a little ambitious after she spent so much energy on fighting. She'll have to get closer to the battlefield to teleport back.

For now, she affixes the parchment to her staff with a binding rune, like a cheat sheet. As she runs back out into the hallway, though, her bat-like senses suddenly come to life and torment her with the baby's screaming. Agatha is trying to calm her down, but for whatever reason, that baby knows there's a battle happening outside.

Aisha isn't thinking anymore. She stopped thinking after Ignia threw that _stupid fucking spear_ at her. "I'll take her," she snaps, wrestling the cloth bundle, baby and all, from Agatha's arms.

"Wait, Miss Aisha-"

She ignores the Ponggo's screaming, as well as the baby's, and runs for the staircase. There's no way she can get close enough to the battlefield in time just by walking, but the only way she can teleport there is to get close.

But then again, Aisha isn't thinking anymore.

She turns around and crashes into the door to the fortress ramparts with her back, knocking it aside with a grunt. "Angkor, you'd better get ready to teleport me through!" She yells, flinging herself over the edge of the fortress.

For one terrifying moment, she doesn't feel like she's falling. Rather, she feels exhausted, like she's just used up all the mana she had and doesn't have the strength to wait for any more to come to her naturally. Her heartbeat slows down, and for the first time in two days, Aisha looks down into the terrified gray eyes of the baby she _rescued_ from the demons.

Then she locks onto the shadow cast by a Waldo, and suddenly she's planting her staff into that very Waldo's back, wrenching it out and turning aside to shield the baby in her arms. "Triangles," she gasps, whirling around to shoot a ball of void energy at a nearby Bomberlord before ducking behind a line of Nasods for cover.

"Aisha Landar, what the _fuck_ do you think you're doing?" Eve demands. "Why do you have the baby with you?"

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing!" Aisha shoots back.

She really doesn't, but as she rereads the mess of an incantation that she wrote in the early hours of the morning, she finds that the blank state of her mind, with all the adrenaline, is helping her convert her scribbled notes into a legitimate incantation. "And for all the status, honour and power that we've lost, let there be a hope to look forwards to! I bring about your downfall, mighty portal. With Elia, Henir and Sult as my witnesses; the power of Angkor, Conwell and Eun guiding me; and human, demon and Nasod supporting me, the darkness in me is my own to control!"

The portal starts to change. Its edges glow in bright purple, and slowly everything changes to a flushed purple in the same shade as Aisha's hair before the entire portal goes clear. On the other side lies Velder, and a base filled with demons of every shape, colour and size, entire oceans of them waiting to storm Altera.

The light around it flickers red momentarily, and then Elesis Sieghart herself is flying through the air, sword aimed directly at her brother. Her blade catches on both of his, and then they start to fight. Elsword is screaming something ugly at his sister, and Elesis is silent and deadly and cold.

Aisha cannot think. The only thing left that she knows is that Elsword is in danger, Altera's fight has only begun, and the necromancers on the other side are already tearing her counter-incantation to pieces.

There's a poof, and then a small white bat materializes on her shoulder. "Do you need some help?"

"Yes," Aisha blurts, before she really knows what she's saying. "Give me something that can end this all."

And so Angkor teaches her the forbidden words that will bring him into this world, not yet in his full form but closer. He teaches her to use her own fear as a strength, to absorb mana from her surroundings like Ara does with spirits. She repeats them once in her head, envisioning nothing but light and darkness, before pushing through the line of Nasod.

Aisha takes a deep breath, holds the baby closer and kisses the top of her head. "Things will be better soon," she says, before focusing on the portal ahead. "HIT THE DECK!"

Her friends and their allies duck out of the way as she raises her staff again. "I summon thee from the depths of the void, the lord of darkness!" She shouts.

Elesis chooses that moment to look up, glaring at her directly, eyes widening as she spots the cocoon of blankets in Aisha's arms. For a moment, as they make eye contact, Aisha's voice falters, but she presses forwards. "I summon thee to battle, for honour and glory and the void from whence you came!"

The little white bat grows in size until it's large enough for her to mount. "ABYSS ANGKOR!"

Angkor opens his mouth to blast a beam of void energy so concentrated that it turns white. It comes in full contact with the portal, piercing through to shred the base into nothingness. Screams arise, fires start to blaze, and demons collapse under the weight of nothingness.

As she makes eye contact with both the Sieghart siblings - first Elesis, then Elsword - Aisha suddenly understands why Add made the choice he did when he blew up the cliff.

She looks down at the baby in her arms. Even though she's blown up the base, killed a million demons while she was at it, she's still the one holding the baby, the little Princess. The demons will continue to burn through Altera's people and their resources if they don't get their hands on this innocent human baby soon. Her presence on Altera is not only a danger to Altera's citizens, but to herself, as well.

"I'm sorry," she says, out loud, before she points towards the portal. "Angkor."

The bat flies forwards, into the portal, and Aisha finds herself in Velder all over again. She summons to mind the image of a shadow - somewhere in a forest nearby, or on a mountain somewhere. She couldn't care less as to where. All she needs to do is to get away.

Ignoring the screams of her friends - _all_ her friends - and the burning in her chest, Aisha raises her staff and steps into the void.

* * *

 **A/N: heckens I am a day late but I finished the chapter so I'm happy, I'm also so exhausted from writing that my shoulders hurt**

 **fun fact: out of the seven classes already introduced in the Infernal Jukebox series, I've only played two: Code: Nemesis and Crimson Avenger... well technically Dark Knight but eh technicalities**

 **I also convinced my parents to let my buy a pair of 4-inch stilettos today for our school's semiformal and lemme tell you it's a workout to just walk in them**

 **also cliffhangers? what are those ahahahaha I like making everyone suffer including the readers, my characters and even myself**

 **~Marg**


	5. Recovering (Slowly)

JAILBREAK

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 5

 _We used to talk about our dream, how we'd look down upon this garbage town_

 **TW: blood and light sexual content. Proceed with caution.**

In the darkness of a room she once shared with the one she loved the most, a young woman lights a single match and presses it to a stick of incense.

Ara has never been religious, nor will she likely ever be, but Eun says praying might help clear her mind, so she does. She lights the incense, letting it smoulder and fill her lungs with the scent of herbs. She clasps her hands together, trying to seek out the warmth of the person she's praying for, and fails.

Everyone has been trying to help her through in their own ways. Her short talk with Aisha before her disappearance was a pleasant escape from the otherwise crushing agony of Add being gone. Elsword and Chung come in periodically to check on her back and talk with her. Eve, while often distant, has been doing her best to keep her company, talking about little things.

Eun has been the most comfort, though. Unlike with Ara's other breakups, she's come to understand how much Add meant to her. She told Ara to forget Penensio, forget Steel, forget that any of them existed, but not Add. As Ara drifts in and out of her dreamless sleep, the ancient kumiho reminds not to forget Add, but to carry on his legacy, that she carries a piece of his soul inside her, that they are _soulmates_ and thus there is pain to be felt.

Even waking up is painful, because the spot next to her on the bed is cold, has been cold for two days. She can barely leave the room because her back aches just as much as her heart, and there's not much for her to to do outside anyways. She can't go dig through the rubble with Chung and Elsword, or sift through the remains of the Ponggo village with Eve. She only finds grief.

So instead, Ara kneels at the makeshift altar she's constructed, and prays. She prays that he's not dead, that her friends will find him alive in a cave under the cliff. She doesn't want to think about what would happen if they never find him, or they do, and he's dead. The few dreams she does have are nightmares of such scenarios, and never have they ended well.

If he really is gone, then she'd rather have gone with him.

She knows Eun is trying her best to help her recover, but the kumiho knows fully well that her mental health is putting a strain on her physical recovery. Eun understands heartbreak just as much as her host does. The scars on Ara's heart will haunt her for longer than the scars on her back.

The incense continues to smoulder. Ara continues to hurt.

After Aisha blew the demon base in Velder to nothingness and teleported into oblivion, the portal closed up and disappeared. Chung was able to launch a few shells into the shrinking portal before Eve stopped him, saying that the siege was over. They'd not only held out but they'd _won_.

In the shock of the moment, Elesis was able to react quickly, push her brother aside, and call a mass retreat. She called a mass retreat. A few of the surviving necromancers were able to open a new portal and funnel all the troops back out, but the damage had been done at its core. The demon base in Velder is no more, Aisha is out in the world, and Add…

Add is gone.

Ignia's stupid spear is hung up on the wall, next to Ara's own spear. It radiates fire magic and heat in every direction. Ara hates it with a burning passion, because Ignia was part of the distraction that let the necromancers from two days ago bring the portal onto the island.

Add is gone.

Even with Chung and Elsword searching through the remains of the rockslide at every moment, Ara is running out of hope. It's been two days since Add disappeared, and with the storms rolling in and out off the coast, she doesn't know at all if he's alive.

Add is _gone_ , and Ara is broken.

There's a quiet knock at the door, breaking her out of her thoughts. "Come in," she says softly, and tries to put on a smile as Elsword pushes open the door and steps in sheepishly. "How are you doing?"

"I'm grimy and covered in demon blood, if that's what you mean," he laughs, shrugging at the sight of his ruined clothes. Yet there's an uneasiness in his voice that Ara understands all too well. He's been fighting alongside Aisha for five years, after all, and if their relationship is anything like Add and Ara's back when they were freedom fighters together, then she knows fully well how much he's suffering.

Ara remembers Eve's pain when Chung was held hostage by the demon twins in Lanox, how she snarled at Jin when they all took the demons on. Elsword must really be worried sick.

She hopes Aisha comes back soon, safe and sound.

"How are you doing, then?" Elsword asks. "Is your back feeling alright? Do you need another painkiller?"

Ara shakes her head. "I'll be fine, thank you," she says. "Have you and Chung found anything new?"

Elsword's expression turns sombre. "Nothing too big yet," he admits. "I left Chung to dig for a little longer while I take a break, so I don't know if he's found anything, but we've found mostly clods of dirt, rocks and demons."

He makes a face. "We have to haul all the demon bodies out, to make sure it's not Add, but so far we haven't found him yet, and the bodies we know are demons, we burn. They have a lot of dark El fragments to fuel them, too. Aisha said…" His voice falters. "Aisha said that they were giving them energy, and that we should be able to purify them _en masse_."

"Are you worried about her?" Ara asks quietly. "Because she disappeared so quickly?"

Elsword nods. "I mean… When we were younger," he says, "when we were just starting out on our journey, we weren't fighting against the demons. Berthe invaded my hometown when I was eight or so, and afterwards my sister disappeared, so we were really just wandering while I kept an eye out for signs of her.

"Aisha gets hurt easily," he laughs. "She hates to admit it, but she has no physical body strength, and she has to rely on her magic too often. Once, when we were passing through Velder, she got sick. Really sick. I had to use my dad's old rank among the Velder knights to get her treatment."

"What did she have?" Ara asks.

"Mana overdose. It was really, really bad. Eventually she was able to expel it, and we kept moving, but it was just…" He flounders for words. "Our other companion had left us because there were things going at home. She could have healed Aisha, but because it was just me, I felt like I couldn't do anything."

Elsword sits down next to her, looking defeated. "And now, it's like that all over again. Except there's literally _nothing_ I can do," he says. "She's out there, wandering the world, and I'm here with no way to help her."

Ara is silent for a moment, trying to gather the right words to tell him. "Do you consider her your best friend?"

He blinks. "Yeah."

"Would you face Henir himself to protect her?"

"Definitely."

She smiles. So they're not quite unlike her and Add, after all. "You know, before we came to Altera," she says, lowering her voice, "Add was a wanted criminal." She laughs at Elsword's surprise. "Up until two days before we came to Altera, Velder had wanted posters up for him for destroying the town of Twin Watchtowers."

"Did he?"

"Mmhmm," she hums. "It was in an accident, but I can't really blame him. He'd been experimenting with a way to channel pure El energy into electrical data, kinda like the way Nasod hearts convert El light into electricity. It blew up in his face, quite literally. Good thing no one in that town died. I found out one day when I saw his wanted poster in town.

"Velder hunted him down for three years, and they nearly caught him a few times too," she continues. "They had him in their grip for about two days last year, because I'd been hospitalized after I got stabbed. And then he ran."

"Wait. You were _hospitalized_ ," Elsword repeats incredulously, "and he ran? Why?"

"First of all, it wasn't a matter of just hospitalization," Ara chides, a little jokingly. "There was a lot of necromancy and resurrection involved. But yeah, he ran, because he didn't want to burden me with the consequences of his mistakes."

She exhales as she remembers the day he explained it properly, when they were back together again for the first time in a month. He'd said it with such certainty, and such _regret_ , that she'd just kissed the topic away. She'd apologized for telling lie after lie in her attempt to protect him, and he'd apologized for leaving her when she was at her weakest.

"After he ran, we spent a month dealing with the aftermath separately," she says. "I went around to Altera, to Elder, trying to get the whole story. Then I went to Velder to get a reprieve of sorts from an old friend." She smiles sadly. "And then I kind of lost it. I'd gotten so used to him being at my side that I'd kind of forgotten what it was like to be without him.

"So I fought senselessly. I kept going even though it nearly killed me. I went drinking a lot, because I met Add in a bar, and I got really, really badly drunk at times."

Elsword's eyes widen in shock. "Oh god, you were the girl at Adams's bar," he realizes.

Ara smirks. "Ah, so that's where your face seemed familiar from. Were you with Aisha at that time?"

He turns red. "Yeah. Sorry about… Mocking you at the time."

"No worries. It kinda gave me a reality check, y'know?" She gives him a shit-eating grin. "You, on the other hand. How old are you now?"

"Eighteen, going on nineteen," Elsword mumbles.

"You were drinking at seventeen?" She cooes, grinning brightly. "Wow, Elsword, I thought you'd be one of those good kids who'd wait until they were old enough to drink." Her expression turns stormy. "But seriously. Alcohol will screw with your mind and your body. Don't drink."

He smiles weakly. "Thanks, mom. Will do."

"Anyways, back to my story." Ara puts a hand on his shoulder. "The moral of this very stupid story is that you need to hold onto the people you love the most before it's too late. Your hesitance now will only hinder you later."

"I don't love her like that," Elsword argues.

""Maybe not now, but what about later in life?" She prompts. "What if you decide you love her, five years from now, except she's dead and you can't tell her anything?"

He's silent. "If you wait to tell her, you might be too late," she continues. "If you tell her now, even if she turns you down, you'll have gotten it out, and it'll be better than having to cry over her dead body. I nearly lost Add because we waited for too long to admit our own feelings, and it nearly destroyed the both of us.

"So, to sum it up…" Ara shrugs sheepishly. "Do it before you regret not doing it, I guess?"

Elsword nods. "That makes sense. Thank you, Ara." He wrinkles his nose. "Is something in this room… Burning?"

Ara looks back to her incense, which is still smouldering. "Whoops." She blows it out quickly. "Sorry about that."

There's another knock at the door. "Come in," Ara says.

This time, it's Chung who opens the door and wanders towards the makeshift altar at the back of the room. "I found something," he says breathlessly, kneeling next to Ara and Elsword on the floor and letting his discovery slide out of his hands onto the floor.

Ara gazes down into the crushed carcass of one of Add's Dynamos and promptly bursts into tears.

She's tried so hard to be hopeful, to be strong. All this time, she's been trying to ignore the fact that if he were alive, if his Dynamos were online, then Eve would be able to connect to them. Seeing the proof that _they're offline, they've been destroyed_ has pushed her over the edge. The floodgates open, and Ara collapses, sobbing uncontrollably.

She doesn't want to face a future without Add by her side. Unlike with her past relationships, they're not only lovers, but best friends, and a powerful team of fighters. She picks up where he left off, and he picks up where she left off. They _complete_ each other - that is the beauty of their relationship.

And now, this stupid war, _those fucking demons_ , have torn that all away from her.

Ara feels so terrible for being such a hypocrite, for crying so much after having said so much to Elsword, but she can't hold back her tears. She doesn't want Add to be dead. _He can't be dead._ Her fear turns to panic, and her panic turns to more tears.

Chung and Elsword try to hold her up, to prevent her from hurting her back any more, but then cold arms gather her up, and suddenly she's sitting up again on the bed with Eve's arms around her. "It's alright, Ara," she says, her voice softer than normal. "You're going to survive. Add is alive and waiting for us to find him."

She turns to glare pointedly at Chung and Elsword. "Which means we should continue searching, regardless of what debris shows up!"

The boys get the message and scramble back out the door.

Eve sighs and smoothes down Ara's stray hairs, waiting for her to stop crying slowly. "Chung says I am not very good at comforting humans with words," she admits, once Ara's breathing evens out. "But I have found that I am good at holding humans until they stop crying. Out of the seven trials I have held, this strategy has worked six times."

Despite the situation, despite the tears and the overbearing pain, Ara finds it in her to smile weakly. "It's a good strategy. It works well."

"I know. That's why I'm using it now," Eve hums. "If you would like, I can discuss something that will take your mind off the pain. For now."

Ara realizes that Eve must really have something important to talk about, if she's trying to offer information like this. "Of course," she says. "What's new?"

There's a sense of nervous energy in Eve, one that she's never seen before. "I am building another successor," she confesses quietly. "Although the demons have agreed to leave my island alone for at least the next year, I cannot sit while they continue to terrorize the outside world.

"But I have my limits. The demon siege strategy has been around since the time of the early Nasod, and will likely continue into the future. Should Altera have fallen during that second day or the third, my empire would be no more." She smiles wryly. "You understand how the Nasod cannot function without a leader."

Her expression goes back to its steely default again. "I refuse to see my empire fall again. I will nourish the Nasod to their full potential, and if I should fall, then there must be an equally capable leader to continue my legacy."

The word _legacy_ resonates in Ara's mind, but she swallows it and smiles brightly for her best friend. "That's wonderful!" She says, as cheerfully as she doesn't feel. "Are you going to make a humanoid Nasod?"

Eve nods. "Most likely."

"What are you going to name it?"

"Shhh, not too loudly. I will name him Nexus." Eve purses her lips. "I will also… Require your assistance in creating a new personality and emotional code. I do not wish to have a repeat of Adam." Her voice falters slightly, but she pushes on. "Nexus will be complete with a personality and emotional drive. I also wish for him to be more humanlike."

"More humanlike?" Ara echoes. "What do you mean?"

"I would like him to experience a childhood, like human children," Eve explains. "Chung and Elsword informed me that human children are born like blank states, and experience emotions such as shock and surprise. This may take a long time to code, unfortunately, but I believe this way Nexus will be able to experience a humanlike lifestyle this way."

"Nexus," Ara murmurs. "What does that mean?"

"Connection," Eve says. "The connection between the Nasod and the humans. He will have, in the sense of the word, the best of both worlds."

"Aw, you're using a human saying!" Ara's face lights up. "You're learning!"

Eve blinks at her, but there's mischief in her eyes. "I try. Would you like to help me… design my new successor?"

"I'd be damned if I didn't," Ara tells her. "Let me find some paper and scribble down some ideas."

The preliminary designs for Nexus are dappled in rosy salmon and black, like Eve's armor. Then Ara points out that it's a bit dark, so they switch the colour theme to white, with highlights of Eve's signature salmon and splashes of black across his armor.

The armor is the one odd thing that they keep coming back to. No matter how many times Eve redraws and redesigns it, Ara keeps seeing bits of Chung's armor pop up. First it's the gauntlets. Then it's the plating across the back. Then it's a curve in the shoulder guard.

"Are you sure you're not just basing it off Chung's armor altogether?" Ara teases, as Eve picks up her eraser to remove a knee guard design. "Is it because Nasod don't typically wear armor?"

"Unfortunately, we don't," Eve sighs. "Combat models are created armored to begin with. I am a diplomacy model, so I must create my own armor." She blinks. "Chung's armor is well-crafted and very lightweight and mobile. In designing new Nasod combat models, I often examine his Freiturnier."

"That's cool," Ara hums, puffing up her cheeks to blow aside a pile of eraser shavings. "Have you told him about Nexus yet?"

Eve freezes entirely, and suddenly Ara gets the idea that there's been a bit of secret building going on. "No. I do not wish to tell him… yet," Eve says quietly. "I fear that Chung may be upset that I am building a Nasod companion, and that he may feel that I am trying to replace him. I'm not."

"Hey, don't worry," Ara tells her, a little unsure as to how to console a _robot_. "He won't be mad, I promise. Chung has seen a ton of new things, and if anything, I think he'll be really happy that you've taken his armor as an inspiration for Nexus!"

She picks up the pencil. "Here, how about we make a few small adjustments to his colour scheme?"

Across the armor, she adds little highlights in the same sky blue as Chung's eyes. "There," she says, "now he's the connection between your expertise in building and design, and years of Hamelian development in armor. Nexus, right?"

Eve's eyes are a million miles away like always, but hey, she's smiling. "Nexus," she echoes.

* * *

Ara goes to visit Chung and Elsword at the rockslide later that day, even though her back is threatening to give in any moment now. She takes one shakingly painful step, breathes out, and takes another, all the way from her room (her _and_ Add's room) in the fortress, down to the beach and the cliff.

It's a painful process, but her three little Nasod friends Bob, Stuart and Kevin are at her side, supporting her every step. Despite all of Add's constant teasing and pushing them around at times, they're just as worried about him as Ara is. "Has Mister Add been found?" Bob enquires, letting Ara lean on his head as her stance shakes and her feet threaten to give in.

"Not yet, Bob," she says softly. "But Chung and Elsword are working hard to find them."

And indeed they are. With no way to tell if the weird squishy thing they've pulled out of the wreckage is Add or not, the only thing they can do is rinse it off in the saline water and wait for the blood to dissolve. The black demon blood hisses as it comes in contact with the water, and it's such a heart-wrenching noise that both Chung and Elsword have earplugs to block it out entirely.

Chung tosses aside a large clod of dirt before turning to wave enthusiastically at Ara. "Over there," he yells loudly, pointing at a large flat rock. There's something sparkling on it in the sunlight.

Stuart scrambles over to retrieve it, and places it in Ara's waiting hands. It's one of Add's Dynamos, except this one is mostly intact. She lets her thumb dip into a crease on the Dynamo, feeling the polished surface roll smoothly under her fingertip. "Thank you," she whispers, daring to press the round button that activates the Dynamo manually.

It rumbles in her hands, coming back to life, and Ara nearly drops it out of sheer surprise.

This Dynamo, against all odds, is not only uncrushed like its siblings, but still fully functional as well. "Dynamo," she says out loud, knowing it picks up her voice just as much as Add's.

Surely enough, it floats into the air sharply, standing on attention. "Connect to Dynamo network," she commands.

The light on the power button blinks green for two seconds before turning red. _The others are offline._ The message couldn't be clearer.

"Return." The light goes off, and the Dynamo waits for further instructions. "Good night." It drops, lifeless, into her hands.

Great. So this is the only one still capable of connecting to the Dynamo network, which means the other Dynamos are either crushed, soaked through and short-circuited with water, or simply knocked offline. "Let's go back to the fortress," Ara tells her little friends.

She barely makes it to the bathroom reserved for her and Add before her stomach threatens to hurl.

For the first time, Ara truly understands why Add has to stop, to breathe again when he gets intrusive thoughts, because the image of Add lying crushed beneath a rock like the Dynamos _just won't go away_. Her nightmare from two days ago resurfaces, adding its own tale of blood and screaming. She looks down at her hands, and they are covered in black, coagulating demon blood.

The contents of her stomach force themselves up, and suddenly Ara finds herself heaving over the sink, a sour taste left in her mouth after she throws up. Her stomach hurts, her diaphragm hurts, her back hurts and her _heart_ hurts.

Ara collapses next to the sink and cries. She cries because she's been fighting for so long for this love, and fate is _cruel_ and is hellbent on taking it away from her. She cries for everything she's loved and lost, family and friends and stupid demon brother and _Add._

She cries for Add. She cries because she loved him, she loves him still, and he's _gone_ and she can't hold him to fight the tears.

So she cries, until her tears run dry, and then she sits in silence.

She needs to wash her mouth out and probably brush her teeth, and she really needs to rinse the sink. Everything smells foul and like death, like the terrible demon blood that stains her hands in her nightmarish vision. She is a mess, but nonetheless she needs to keep moving.

Her back throbs with low, dull pain, but Ara slowly gets up anyways. She turns on the tap, rinsing out her vomit, and reaches into the cupboard above to grab her cup and toothbrush. The taste of Add's favourite mint toothpaste stings the inside of her cheek, but she ignores it.

"I should take a shower," she muses, mostly to herself. "I haven't showered in a few days. My scars should have healed enough by now."

She sheds her clothes and steps gingerly into the shower, trying her best not to twist her back. The Core only has so much hot water, but Ara stands motionless in the shower, letting the water run in her hair and over her closed eyes.

Ara is tired, she is bloody, she is a murderer, she is a lover, she is a sinner, she is lost. She needs to sleep, to mourn, to pray, to be cleansed of her sins, to cry. Instead, she stands in the shower, unable to find herself or to speak as the water washing over her runs cold.

She steps out afterwards, her skin pale and pink, and reaches for a towel to wrap around herself, and another in which she wraps her long hair.

The Ara in the mirror is elegant and beautiful, her face free of the splotches that come along with crying. The Ara in the mirror is flawless and battle-hardened, ready to fight another battle in the name of justice regardless of the consequences. The Ara in the mirror is waiting for tomorrow to come, so that she can return to her love.

The Ara in the mirror is whole. The Ara in front of the mirror is broken.

She drags herself back to the room - their room - and collapses on the bed.

* * *

Dinner that night is grim.

Ara sits motionless at the table, even as Chung sets a basket of perfectly-toasted garlic bread on the table. Eve glances at her, probably concerned that her favourite food went unnoticed, but no one speaks out. The conference room is silent, save for the sounds of food being eaten.

"We found a third Dynamo," Chung finally says, dropping his fork gently. "It's still fully intact, but when we pressed the button, it didn't light up. It probably short-circuited. Eve, can you pry it open to try and rewire it?"

"I will see what I can do," Eve replies, "although I do not want to ruin wiring inside, so I may just scan it instead for the source of the issue."

Ara doesn't want to hear it anymore. Her chair clatters aside as she stands up, turning around to leave.

"Ara-"

"Don't touch his work," she snaps, whirling around. Her back crackles, but she ignores it, her gaze burning into Eve. "Don't you dare fucking touch it. Go work on your pet project or something, but _don't touch him._ "

As she turns to storm back to their room, she purposely tunes out her friends' cries to her. They disappear into the back of her mind, along with all other tangible things.

She doesn't want to hear it anymore.

She crashes into walls as she struggles to fight her way back to their room. The tears are blinding her, and suddenly there's a door in the way. Ara throws it open and finds Add's blueprints scattering, scattering across the floor.

For once, Ara feels like she's completely out of tears. But she is tired, and she sits down in Add's big swivel chair and puts her head on the desk. It's not the first time she's done this, and it certainly won't be the last, but it's comforting, even though sleep refuses to find her. The light of the sunset rests on her briefly before it too fades away, leaving her in restless darkness.

The door creaks open. Ara lifts her head to Elsword sitting down next to her. "Do you mind if I put on some light?" He asks softly.

Ara shakes her head.

"Alright, then." He presses a button on a nearby lamp, and it lights up in a soft orange. "Do you wanna talk?"

Ara studies him closely. His red hair is a little less well kept than the days before, his side shave a little less neat. His eyes are still red, but their vibrant colour seems to have dulled, and there are noticeable dark circles under his eyes. His posture is relaxed, but there's a slouch in his back that tells Ara more than his words.

"Let's talk," she says. "How much sleep have you been getting?"

Elsword frowns. "What do you mean-"

"Answer the question. How much sleep have you been getting?"

"Not enough," he admits quietly. "As in, I got maybe two hours in last night."

"Elsword, you know you're exhausted from battle already," Ara says, exhausted herself. "Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I don't know, I just-" Elsword makes a fist and punches his own leg. "I can't sleep. I keep staying awake because - because _she haunts me_."

"Elesis or Aisha?" Ara asks.

"Both!" Elsword shuts his eyes. "It's just… I didn't want to lose Elesis, and now she's come back to haunt me. What about Aisha? What if she comes back, and I've lost her like I've lost my sister? How am I supposed to just sit and watch as the demons take my sister and my best friend away?"

Ara reaches out, and he falls into her embrace. For a moment, she feels like an older sister, a role she was never able to take in the Haan household. She pats Elsword on the back, and finds that she does still have some tears to shed.

They're both suffering, in their own ways, but it's not so different after all. Add is somewhere under that pile of rocks, either dead or dying or alive and undiscovered, and Aisha is out there, hunted down by the demons because she's carrying the most illegal contraband of all - life. Elsword cries, because despite all his bickering with Aisha, she's still his friend, and of all the stupid little things they've argued about, their link of arms in war was never one of them.

Then there's another pair of arms around them. Chung understands, too, because through all his fighting against the demons, his only goal is to find his father again. Everyone knows Helputt Seiker is gone, but Chung clings onto that tiny bit of hope that he isn't, that he'll find his father alive and safe and stronger than ever.

The last to join the pile, holding them until their tears fade, is Eve. Despite her limited emotional drive, Eve understands fear better than perhaps any of them. Her empire has fallen, and under her command, it has arisen anew. Now, with the threat of war constantly looming over them, she has no choice but to fight fire with fire.

Suddenly, they're not fearless warriors anymore. Perhaps they never were to begin with, but for once, they can truly drop the facade. They are just children, forced to grow up too quickly because war threatened to bury them alive if they didn't. They are just children torn away from their families, crying over those they have loved and lost.

But they also cry because hope is coming. Maybe it's just out of reach now, but they'll grab ahold of its fleeting wings and be carried on with it into the sky. Altera is a beacon of hope, and to them, it's a home they can call home. This is where love began and where it will end, where friendships were made and will become stronger, where a broken girl and boy came after the world turned its back on them.

Ara cries herself to sleep in the arms of her friends, but it is a peaceful, dreamless, calm sleep that she returns to.

The waking nightmare stops, if only for the night.

* * *

In the morning, Ara strikes a single match and presses it to the sticks of incense again.

Her prayers are no longer just _please let him live so I can live again_ , but _please let there be peace for all of us, so that we can all live again_.

Eun knows when her host needs her space, and she respects it. The spirit seems to be content with staying in the far reaches of Ara's mindscape, only coming forth when she calls. Occasionally she offers her advice, like _don't let the incense burn for too long, you'll set off the smoke alarm_ and _muffle your crying in one of Add's t-shirts_. Right now is an extended "please give me space" period, and Ara feels content knowing that the kumiho's power has retracted to her hairpin.

So Ara continues to pray, however stupid it might be, because it's one of the few things that Eun suggested that works. She prays that she'll have the strength to bring Add home, regardless of how broken he may be. She prays that her friends will have the strength to push on alongside her. She prays that Aisha will be safe, and that Elsword will find himself a healthy sleep cycle once more.

After her prayers, she sits down at the desk, turning on Add's computer and hooking it up to the one functional Dynamo. Once upon a time, he taught her a little bit about the settings on his Dynamos, as well as the user functions once they're hooked up to the computer.

The first option, which is _energy usage_ , is of no particular use to her. _Modifications_ does seem interesting, though - aside from his glove pointing thing, she hasn't seen a lot of his recent mods. She opens the menu for the modifications.

That's when she sees it.

Between the ten Dynamos, only three of them are still capable of going online, as shown by the green text on them. The one she's hooked up to at the moment is number 4, of the original six. The other connected gear is shown, as well.

The Nasod Armor that clothes Add, as well as the gloves with their command function, _are all still fully capable of going online._

 _The armor is capable of going online, which means it's intact, which means not only does Ara have a way to trace down Add's exact location, but he could be fully alive._

"Oh my god," she whispers, voice rising with each word. "Oh my god. Oh my god."

Eventually it just turns into screaming, and soon the three others have all crowded in as well. "Ara!" Eve shouts, her metallic boots skidding to a stop by the desk. "Are you okay?"

Ara looks up at her, eyes full of light and life and hope. "I can find Add with this," she says breathlessly.

Less than ten minutes later, they've gathered on the beach once more. The remains of a bonfire lie next to the rockpile, charring the sand around them, but Ara doesn't care. Her coordinates, her exact coordinates, show a focused purple point in the middle of that rockpile, and with every blackened rock they pull out, Ara feels her heart grow a little in hope.

Still, there's a sense of uncertainty that lingers about the situation. It's been three days, after all. Regardless of whether or not he survived the rockslide, Add has been trapped under the debris for three days, and it's unfortunately more than likely that he's been dying of dehydration.

The adrenaline of the discovery wears off, and the fear and panic start to set in. Is Ara really ready to face the love of her life dead? Can she go on knowing that he's dead, and she watched her friends pull his body out of the wreckage?

Eve squints down into the pit, the El gem on her forehead flashing out a scan beam. "Keep going," she says. "We're almost there."

Beside Ara, Bob tugs on her skirt. "Has Mister Add been found?" He chirps, servos whirring as he tilts his head.

"Almost," she replies.

Chung makes a strangled noise, like he's about to scream. "Oh god," he says weakly, pulling a rock dyed in dark burgundy red out of the pit. "There's human blood on this."

"Wait, I see his hand!" Elsword yells. "Quick, guys, grab him-"

They all lean into the pit, and suddenly Ara is the one biting back a scream as they lift out Add's bloody form out of the rockpile.

For a terrifying moment, he doesn't move. He is covered in blood, black demon blood and his own as well. Ara feels tears welling in her eyes already -

But then he opens one beautiful purple eye, bloodshot but alive, and offers her a weak smile. "Ara," he whispers.

Even with the three Nasod supporting her, Ara feels her knees buckle.

The last thing she knows is that Eve is screaming her name, and then she knows no more.

* * *

Ara wakes up in a bed that is not her own. It is cold and more like a cot than anything, because it has only space for one person to sleep in.

Beside her sits Eve, pristine and silent as always. "Good evening, Ara," she says quietly. "I hope you are faring alright."

"Please tell me I'm not hallucinating," she gasps. "Is Add alive?"

Eve smiles at her, genuinely and kindly. "Yes, he is, and he is waiting for you." She reaches to a panel on the side of the cot, and suddenly Ara feels the upper portion of her body tilt upwards into a sitting position. "In medical terms, he is severely dehydrated, although due to the water he absorbed from the storm, he was able to survive the three days.

"He was not crushed, but he has suffered several injuries," she reports. "His second finger on his left hand was snapped in half. There are several long cuts across his back and abdomen that are not very deep, but at risk of infection."

Her expression turns stony. "I revisited the scan I took of the rock pile," she says quietly. "There was a rock that came very close to killing him. The only reason he is alive is because there was a necromancers above him that lost its head, giving him the room to breathe. Unfortunately, this caused him to ingest a large portion of demon blood. He is still coughing up demon blood at this moment."

"Can I go see him?" Ara asks, voice wavering.

"Of course." Eve extends a hand out, helping her climb out of the cot. "Oh, and Ara?"

"Yeah?"

Eve's expression looks pained, if anything. "Please, do not engage in any sexual activity with Add," she advises. "His current physical condition is not one for any boisterous activity, and after doing a complete scan of you, I can safely say that you are not in the condition to, either. Furthermore, the rest of us do need to rest, as well."

"Right," Ara says, laughing playfully. "My back is still injured. Gotcha. And for the record, thank you, Eve."

The queen of the Nasod dips her head in understanding.

As Ara makes her way down the hallway, though, her thoughts begin to turn sour once again. Is she really ready to face him again, after these past few days of pure pain?

She pauses at the door - _their_ door - and freezes. Her thoughts turn to mush, and suddenly she can't feel anything but the low throbbing of her back. She's almost home. Almost back to Add.

Ara pushes open the door and stumbles through, her back screaming in pain as she takes progressively faster and faster steps, but the breathing, living figure on the bed reminds her of her purpose here. She hobbles through the room, holding onto chairs and the wall when her back threatens to give in.

A soft "oh god" leaves her lips, because he's still beautiful as he was before he left. Even with the myriad of cuts and bandages that now cover his skin. Even with the splint around his finger. Even with the patch on his eye, stark white like his tattered hair. There's no clear sign of life aside from his shallow breathing when she sits down next to him, but his eyes flicker open with amusement as soon as she reaches to him.

"Ara," Add whispers, reaching to hold her hand. "Hi."

Her jaw drops, and suddenly all her words leave her. "Ara," he repeats, like it's his lifeline. "How are you doing?"

"Terrible," she forces out. "I missed you."

Add tries to smile, but his face contorts terrible as he coughs. A drop of dark demon blood trickles down the corner of his mouth. "I missed you too."

Ara grabs a tissue from the nightstand and wordlessly wipes the stream of blood away, fingers lingering on his lips for a moment longer before she moves it away. "Ara," Add says softly, "what's wrong?"

Her hand falls, and her strength falters. "Hey," he says, "you can talk to me. I'm here for you."

Something shatters in Ara at that moment, the barrier that's been holding her back from pouring herself out on him. "How dare you," she says, eyebrows furrowing but eyes full of tears. "How _dare_ you leave me again."

And there it is, that beautiful smile that she's come to love so dearly. "It was the only way I could protect you at the time," Add says quietly, smoothing her curled up fingers out. "If I'd let that cohort go, they would have hurt you. I saw a chance to return to you, and I took it.

"The only thing I needed to do was to make sure you were safe."

Ara's lips part, and suddenly she's kissing him again, for joy and relief and all the days she spent in _hell_ waiting, waiting for him to come home. Scars and bruises and little magic burns litter her skin and his, and between her back injury and his snapped finger and new respiratory issues and the scars on their hearts, they're pretty badly hurt. He'll continue coughing up clods of black blood for the rest of his life, and the scar on her back will never really heal, but they're together again.

They survived the liberation of Hope Bridge together. They took down the demon earl Ran together. They faced the law in Velder together, and walked out of that stupid courtroom with dignity and responsibility. They may have survived these three days in hell separately, but they're together again, and nothing else matters. Add is home, which means Aisha will be back soon and Elsword will be happy again, and _oh boy_ , Ara can't wait to tell Add about Eve's plans for Nexus.

But right now, what they both need is rest. Add has been stuck under a pile of rocks for three days, and Ara has seen more carnage and tears than she will for the rest of her life. She climbs back into bed - their bed - and burrows into his embrace once again, basking in his familiar warmth and closing her eyes as he rests his chin on her head.

"Please marry me, Ara," Add murmurs softly. She almost doesn't hear his sleepy mumble, but when she does, it wraps her broken heart up in warmth and puts it back together again.

The last thing she remembers saying before falling asleep in his arms is a breathless "yes".

* * *

 **A/N: did you really think i'd kill off one of my main characters**

 **the answer is always no, i like to make them suffer in living hell instead**

 **Ara's panic when she has to talk to Add again is highly inspired by me stalling on talking to Sunshine after he came back from glider camp because i'm a mess ahahahaha**

 **place your bets on the little Princess's parentage and her name now bc they will be revealed in the next chapter**

 **~Marg**


	6. Lament

JAILBREAK

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 6

 _Warning signs, mixed signals and endless messages_

 **TW: blood. Lots of it. Proceed with caution.**

There's something about Ignia that Elesis just can't enough of.

Is it her slim fingers, the way they dance across her skin and wrap themselves in her hair? Or is her eyes, like sparkling rubies that catch fire in sunlight? Whatever it is, Elesis loves it, loves the thrill of being able to take her breath away, loves the feeling of having Ignia Mavros in her grasp.

The year they've spent together has been full of quality alone time, but today is not a good day for that. Even as Ignia waddles through the room on her one good leg, shaking her hips alluringly, Elesis yawns from her sprawled position on their shared bed. It's still very, very early in the morning, and for once, both of them are too tired to do anything brash.

They are not demons, even though the majority of the world labels them as such. Both of them are still very much human, and with their humanity comes vulnerability. Scars decorate Ignia's abdomen and legs, and burns cover her arms and hands. Infection is spreading up her leg, and soon it might need to be amputated. Elesis is pale, too pale, and if not a demon, the people of Elrios would likely have called her a vampire.

Elesis hates to admit it, but she is very much human, and with the perks of being human comes all of its disadvantages.

Like her bitter enemies, like her fiery girlfriend, like her tormented brother, Elesis is tired.

She is tired of constantly marching to war. When she decided to swear her loyalty to the demon empire, she wasn't expecting to fight another battle nearly every day. Her health is mostly keeping up with the times, but Ignia has to rest often.

She sighs as she remembers that Ignia can't even leave the demon base. Her shattered still needs to heal, and the blacksmiths still need to forge her a new spear. After she threw her last spear out on that last day of the siege, Eve caught it, leaving Ignia unarmed.

That didn't mean that she was defenseless, though. Even without her spear, Ignia charged into battle, holding fire in both hands and followed by a shower of flaming comets. She held out on her own against Leviathan, the ancient ice titan of Altera, for about twenty minutes, until a flying shard of shrapnel imbedded itself in her knee, shattering the joint.

Elesis found out later on that the exploding shrapnel was a recycled attack - the Deadly Chaser in white armor fires a shell, it explodes, and then Queen Eve of the Nasod picks up the pieces with her magnetism, sending them flying in every direction like a deadly wave of piercing metal. Just a single one of those scraps can tear through the flesh of a glitter, or rip the head off an incubus.

Ignia sat wide awake, without any anesthetics, through the entire surgical procedure in which the demonic doctors repaired her leg. Elesis stood motionless just outside the room the whole time, waiting for her brave, brave girlfriend to emerge victorious from her surgery.

It's been a long week, and Elesis is glad that she can finally sleep in.

"You've been quiet," Ignia comments, smiling as she sits down next to Elesis on the bed. "Did the siege get to you?"

It's true, Ignia's definitely the more talkative one between the two of them, but Elesis does have to speak eventually at some point. "Kind of," she says quietly. "You got hurt."

Ignia laughs brightly, pushing the hair away from Elesis's forehead and placing a single kiss on her skin. Her lips are burning with warmth. "I'll be alright," she murmurs, drawing her lips away. "Besides, doesn't Karis want you to listen to the meeting today?"

"There's never anything worth listening to," Elesis mumbles, eliciting more laughter from her girlfriend.

"Nonsense. You've got to listen for the both of us." She gestures down at her knee, which is wrapped up with layers of bandages. Elesis knows it's actually purple and blue underneath, probably growing in infection. "I actually kind of like sitting in on the meetings, if only because it's fun to watch Karis and Scar beat each other up over the littlest things. Plus, you're scary enough to make them stop being loud when you need to, so you can go stop them!"

Even though her words are bright and cheerful, Elesis knows that Ignia is hurting inside. After the girl with Angkor's blessing took off with Lilith, Ignia's temper and mood have been getting worse and worse. The other day, she refused to take her medicine, slapped Scar in the face after he tried to pull rank to order her to take it, and proceeded to crush it up under her foot.

Karis, who usually snaps endlessly with her, has been avoiding her like the plague these past few days.

Elesis presses her lips to Ignia's forehead once before rolling off the bed, letting her take her place. "I'll go," she says, "for you."

It's enough to make Ignia's face brighten immediately. "Thank you, Ellie!"

The old nickname has somehow stuck through thick and thin, and Elesis loves it but hates that it's survived all this time. It was originally meant to mock her when she first swore loyalty to the demons, because she walked into the demon base as a mere human and walked out, days later, as not only a demon general but Ran's new right-hand woman.

Ignia doesn't like to talk about Ran and Elesis. They weren't lovers on a sexual level, like Elesis and Ignia are now, but in a tactical manner. Elesis never really found the allure of men, and besides, Ran was having his own affair at the time, but she respected him as an equal and drew her blade alongside his. They fought together under their own orders. With Ran's protection, she only grew in status, until she was able to stand on the same level as Scar himself in meetings.

And then those motherfuckers killed him.

Ran's greatest weakness as a fighter was his stubbornness. Once, he'd nearly gotten himself thrashed by Karis for leaving in the middle of the night to settle a score with an old enemy. His long battle against his sister was prolonged for _years_ because he just kept going back to torment her, like some sort of mosquito returning to bite the same person for its whole life.

And he fell terribly for it. In the moment after Add and Ara launched their consecutive attacks at him, his human soul took back over of the bodily vessel. Ran had not only been killed, but his soul had been wiped - he'll never reincarnate as himself again.

Ran was the third of the generals that they'd lost in those two months, with the twins In and Jin being the first and second. Even if they were a little more than playful, they were still good allies, and they were killed, by Ara and Add and Nemesis and the Deadly Chaser. Now it's become clear that Nemesis was the queen of Altera all along, and more than enough evidence points towards the glowing conclusion that the Deadly Chaser is the lost Prince Seiker of Hamel.

And while Elesis lost her greatest ally, Ara Haan got her beloved Add back.

It's not fair.

Elesis wants to respect Ara as a fellow fighter, wants to connect with her on amicable terms, but because she is an enemy of the demon empire, she can't. She wants to talk strategy to Eve, about that magnetism trick she has and the attacks she can make from it, but she can't. She wants to _live_ again, like a human girl with friends and a stable love life and a brother who she still can't believe has grown up so much, but she can't.

Elesis is tired of being holed up in this demon compound when she's not fighting, and she's tired of fighting when she's not being holed up in this demon compound. It's a stupid cycle of fighting and depression and more depression.

The conference room keeps getting emptier and emptier. At the peak of its attendance, the room with jam-packed with demon generals, with representatives from at least fifty divisions of demons. Now, it's just Scar, Karis and Elesis, as always. A few incubi mill in and out of the room, but otherwise it's fairly empty.

It would be quiet, too, if Scar and Karis weren't arguing all the time.

"Look, I'm saying we should try to talk to her," Karis snaps, hands balled up into fists. "It won't do us any harm if we try."

"Might I remind you that _you_ were the one that the motherland sent to assassinate her after her fall," Scar retorts. "Out of everyone in this room, you're the only one she knows, and we know for a fact that she hates your guts for killing her human plaything the first time around. No one in this room is less suited for this job, if any, than you!"

Despite being only about half his height, Karis is really quite good at giving Scar the stinkeye. "You," she says sternly, "don't get to tell me what to do. I'm gonna go track Luciela down, and she's going to join our ranks like the lowly half-glitter that she is!"

"What's going on?" Elesis interrupts, getting the full attention of both her fellow generals. "Who's Luciela?"

Scar tries to make a motion to say _no, don't goad her_ but Karis ignores him and launches herself into a fine fury.

"You know nothing of the hierarchy of demons, so I suppose we will have to explain," the succubus scoffs. "At the top of our social ladder is the great demon King, but directly under him are his four overlords - Dark-Eye King Berngart, Red Demon King Stirbargen, White Ghost King Aegirp, and her. Luciela."

"She was the Steel Queen," Scar explains, "and she was the most powerful of them all. King Berngart's army brought about hunger and suffering to those in the ancient lands we conquered. King Stirbargen's army tore them apart with fire and destruction. King Aegirp and his necromancers flushed nations with illness and disease. And Queen Luciela… She brought death. To everything and everyone."

"Everyone hated her," Karis scowls. "Alright, so not everyone, but the power she held over everyone else was too immense. We had to take her down a notch or two, you see. So we bided our time and waited for an opening.

"And that opening came when the great demon King passed on, leaving no successor. Luciela, greedy as she was, reached immediately for his throne, but with a little creative bribery, we were able to convince her closest general to ensnare her." She smirks. "And so, little Luciela was caught, and the ancient house of Abbadon fell."

"She was ensnared and drained of her energy for three centuries." Scar offers her a wry smile. "There was only so much power we could drain out of her daily, but I hope that gives you a perspective on just how much magic she had in her. At the very end, she had just enough power left in her to shrink to an adolescent form and jump through the dimensional hole to Elrios."

He nods towards Karis. "This one was placed in charge of capturing her. Tracked her down to Lanox, where she'd already found one to take care of her. Does Luciela have succubus heritage?"

"If she did, I'd have killed her by now," Karis hisses.

Scar shrugs and continues. "Anyways, the pretty human boy took the shot for Luciela, but then she tied her soul to his to save him. It left them both hella weak, but they still had Karis running back here with her tail up between her legs." He sidesteps Karis's kick, chuckling. "Anyways, we've been hearing reports that she's regained most of her lost power, and she's made her human boy a demon, too."

"So you want to add them to our ranks," Elesis says, eyebrow cocked. Now she sees where Karis's plan could go (and probably _will_ go) terribly awry.

"Exactly," Karis says smugly. "You see, Scar, even Elesis agrees with me!"

Scar gives Elesis a _look_ that says "please don't enable her". "Fine. Get going, then."

The succubus grabs her scythe, unfurls her wings, and takes to the skies, cackling with glee.

"Let her go," Elesis says quietly after Karis disappears. "She'll learn her lesson quickly enough. Luciela shouldn't kill her, although I can't say the same for her human friend."

"Knowing Karis, she'll find her way back alive," Scar offers. "You wanna go chaperone her?"

Elesis thinks for a moment. "I'm going to go meditate."

Scar doesn't try to stop her. In fact, no one tries to stop her as she leaves the demon compound and steps into the world, fresh and not bloodstained, for once. A few low-ranking incubi and succubi even salute her in the traditional demon way, bowing deeply with their arms crossed over their chests.

Everyone in the demon compound knows Elesis is a wandering soul. Much like her brother, she can't stay still for long. Even when she's stuck in conferences, her eyes flicker around, absorbing information about the people around her and the surrounding environment. Her mind wanders when her body can't, to Hamel and Altera and Lanox and everywhere in between and everywhere beyond.

She used to meditate often. Her father taught her breathing exercises when she was young and unable to control the growing powers of El in her. Now, he is dead, but his words and advice still linger within her, and she returns to the ways of peace and calm.

Elesis walks out of the demon compound and squints in the sunlight.

It's just past twelve thirty. Elder is fairly warm in late May, but there's a pleasant cool breeze that sends a gentle tingle down her spine. The soil is tinted lightly blue, not due to the demonic influence but from all the nutrients and powerful minerals of the forest.

The townsfolk around these parts say that the Shadow Forest of Elder is haunted with the spirits of vengeful demons. Elesis thinks it's a pretty nice place to be, as long as you avoid the native ents and their nests. They tend to get violent when their homes get trampled, but pretty much any creature in the forest does that.

Most of the forest creatures are afraid of Elesis, though. The small creatures - miniature Phorus, bunnies, even bugs run away her when she ventures into the forest. The larger Phorus and sometimes even the ents duck away to try and go unnoticed when she wanders into their territories to pick apples. She radiates danger and death, and no one wants any of that.

There's a little spot in the forest that she likes. It's surrounded by trees, meaning sunlight filters down between the leaves in a hazy wave. A brook nearby provides her with a cool breeze and soft bubbling to clear her thoughts. There's one very large flat rock in the middle of the glade, perfect for meditation.

The light of the early afternoon through the leaves dapples her pale skin in white and green, mixing into her red armor and fading it out to a worried brown. Elesis flicks a bug off her shoulder with the expertise of someone who's done it a million times before sticking her sword next to a nearby tree and climbing into her favourite rock.

Elkashu taught her to meditate in her thoughts before anything else. Elesis starts by thinking about the past. She thinks about Ignia's injury, about her brother, about Ran and how Ara's golden eyes are just as piercing as his. She thinks about her future, about Lilith, about the new spear that the blacksmiths are making for Ignia.

There is no need to think about the present, for she already is the present.

Elesis takes in a deep breath and clears her mind. She puts her hands in her lap and closes her eyes. She relaxes her muscles and lets everything go blank.

But it doesn't.

 _pressure chaos destruction_ pandemonium _pain hope altera elder hamel_ lilith _trapped locked_ murder _darkness calm ruins waves grass cottage elsword flames fighter_ blood _, she wants_ blood _-_

Her fingers curl around the handle of her sword, and suddenly she's no longer sitting in meditation but standing with the tip of her sword at Aisha Landar's throat.

"... Uh, surprise?" The other girl chuckles nervously. "I've kind of got a lot to hold, so do you mind putting the sword down...?"

Elesis realizes quickly that Aisha is still holding Lilith, _her Lilith_ , and sticks her sword back in the ground. "Noted."

Now that she finally has a good chance to look at Aisha, she realizes that the younger girl is much thinner than she'd thought. Dark circles accompany her lifeless eyes. Her shoulders sag under the weight of the battle staff tied hastily around her back. Scars and bruises litter every inch of exposed skin on her person. A particularly large gash decorates her left shoulder, rendering it virtually immobile.

Above all else, Lilith is nestled safely in the bundle of soft blue blankets in her arms. Elesis sighs and relaxes, knowing her daughter is safe.

She should kill Aisha right here and now and bring Lilith home to Ignia's warm arms. She should stomp on Aisha's bloody corpse to make her brother suffer, make him know that his best friend went too far. She should make Aisha suffer for taking her daughter away.

Elesis pushes aside those thoughts. In the forest glade, she is not the red devil, nor is she the blood knight, and certainly not the Crimson Avenger. She is no demon general here. She is just Elesis, and if she is to catch up with the ten years of her brother's life that she missed without so much as blinking, she must get to know his friends.

"Do you wanna just talk?" She suggests, offering her hand to Aisha. "We can call a truce for the afternoon."

When Aisha doesn't respond, she presses forwards a little more. "Look, I don't want to kill you, at least not right now. You know my brother, likely more than I do. I need you to tell me how he's been."

Aisha is silent for a while. "Only if you tell me about the baby I'm holding."

"Sure."

They shake on it, and then Aisha joins Elesis on her rock. "Have an apple," she says, grabbing one from the pile at the base of the rock and tossing it over. "I can hold Lilith while you eat."

"Lilith. Is that her name?" Aisha asks, biting into the apple. A trickle of apple juice flows down the side of her mouth, and Elesis winces when it drips onto the blue blanket. "Lilith, the queen of the demons?"

"Yeah. Not my first choice of name, but it's pretty symbolic." She reaches over into Aisha's lap, hoisting out the bundle of blankets and sighing as Lilith's familiar little hand comes to swat at her cheek. A week without her baby, and she's already turned into an affection-hungry monster.

"So is she your biological daughter?" Aisha asks. "Elsword said you guys have some sort of uber-powerful red hair and eyes gene, so she can't be."

Elesis smirks lightly. "I suppose he's not wrong. We do have very vibrant hair, and if she were my biological kid, I'd probably have passed that on to her." She brushes a lock of blue hair out of her face. "But yeah, her biological dad is Ran."

There's a moment of just silence. Then Aisha laughs out loud. "Oh, wow," she giggles. "That's one explanation I hadn't expected. Who's her mum?"

"Sasha Vasilev." Elesis watches as her daughter's gaze goes wandering elsewhere, focused on some other thing from some other world. "I'm sure you've heard rumours about Ran and I… I assure you, we were never lovers of that kind. Aside from our strong tactical compatibility and teamwork, we were never intimate." She drops her gaze. "My interest didn't lie in his direction, anyways.

"But Ran had been in an intimate relationship with Sasha Vasilev for several years. She never knew him as Ran - only ever as Aren Haan. He'd drop his demonic appearance when he visited her, and took great measures to keep his demon aura under wraps. She didn't realize that the man she loved was actually the Dark Earl," she continues, "until a few days before her death this past February."

Aisha winces. "What happened?"

"She holed herself up in the Hall of Water after the invasion started," she says. "She'd only let people she trusted in, and her magic would keep those she didn't trust out. After Hamel fell, the Hall of Water was the only untouchable building. She'd only let Aren and her retainers in."

Elesis pauses for a moment as Lilith yawns, her little pudgy hands stretched above her head before she closes her eyes and relaxes. "One of our fellow generals was able to infiltrate the Hall of Water disguised as him. She realized too late that she was carrying a half-demon child."

"And that half-demon child is Lilith," Aisha concludes, smiling sadly. "Blessed with the magic of the Water El and the ancient arts of the demons. So that's why Sasha was at the bottom of the pool in the altar room. Her stomach was ripped open so you guys could take Lilith out, wasn't it?"

"Definitely not one of our finer moments," Elesis says, wincing. "It was painless for her, but nonetheless… It was something we could have handled better."

"At least you have the grace to admit it," Aisha says weakly. "So she died. What happened afterwards?"

"Ran took custody of Lilith, and appointed me as his daughter's guardian if something should happen to him." She smirks. "Lo and behold, he gets himself killed, and suddenly I'm her guardian because she's got no living family left."

Aisha thinks for a moment. "That's where you're wrong," she decides, setting down her apple core. "Lilith may be an orphan, but she's still got living family - her aunt Ara is alive and growing roots in Altera. Who knows, she might even have a younger cousin running around there soon."

Elesis mentally freezes, because she's so _stupid_. Of course Ara and Add have more custody over her daughter than she does. How long has she raised this baby? Three months? Only to lose her to…

Responsible people. Normal people. A loving couple who is ready to start a family and raise one. Two people who are not demon generals, constantly on the warpath and ready to slaughter. Protectors, not destroyers. In every sense of the word, they are more qualified to raise her daughter than she is.

And Elesis hates it. She doesn't want to give up her daughter, not when Lilith has such a wonderful family here. Her Aunt Karis is sweet but terrified of her, while her uncle Scar dotes upon her. Her Mama Ignia showers her in gifts of trinkets from the villages they've conquered, pampers her with the best of the best, lets her watch as they round up and execute survivors.

And Elesis holds her close as she cries, feeds her with reheated cow's milk because her mammary glands aren't exactly functional, rocks her to sleep at two in the morning. If Elesis ever loved anything, it would be her daughter.

Taking care of Lilith makes her feel a little better about missing out on so much of her brother's childhood. She failed to stay for him, and now it's too late to mend her broken ends.

"Tell me about my brother," she says quietly. "Please."

Aisha jolts as the silence breaks. "Well, what do you want me to tell you about?"

"Everything." Elesis's voice falters as she realizes _everything_ ironically doesn't actually cover much. "Tell me about the way he's changed. You've known him for longer than the invasion, haven't you?"

"I have," Aisha says. "And he's changed, although I can't tell if it's for the better or for the worse. He's gotten so much more serious than he was when we were kids."

"How old were you guys when you first met?" Elesis asks. "I mean, I left Elsword in Ruben when he was eight, so I really missed out on a lot..."

"I was fifteen at the time, so he would have been thirteen," Aisha says, laughing. "Man, he was like a tiny gremlin at the time. I was taller than him until maybe three years ago? He really shot up in the past two years, though. I think he's taller than you are."

Elesis smiles. "Then I'll have to thank you for keeping him sufficiently nourished for him to grow."

"Oh." Aisha turns red. "You're welcome, I guess...?" She shakes it away. "He's learned to play his cards well, but he's still naive and tries to make friends with everyone. It hasn't been as bad as it could be, though. He got a patron and an unlimited supply of swords."

"I see." Elesis had been wondering how her brother had managed to materialize a pair of shining steel swords out of nothing. Now, at least it makes a little more sense. "His fighting has changed a lot, too. When he was very young, all he knew was senseless smacking."

"Oh yeah, he did that when we first met, too," Aisha giggles. "Our friend, who had been travelling with us at the time, gave him some tips on how to fight more effectively." Her eyes focus on something far away. "She had to go home because they had an emergency, but I see her in our lives often. She taught us how to cook, how to dress our wounds and stuff."

"She sounds like a good friend," Elesis muses.

Aisha's smile turns sad. "She was. I hope she's doing okay now."

They sit in silence for a while. "Are the two of you close?" Elesis asks quietly after a long, long time.

This time, she's absolutely certain that Aisha's face turns very, very red, and it tells her everything she needs to know. "I suppose?" Aisha squeaks. "I mean, we've been fighting together for a long time, so we're pretty good friends. Aside from that… I don't really know."

"That's alright," she hums. "You don't have to know yet. You're still young, and you have lots of time to fall in love and find those you want to be close to."

"You're dating the former fire priestess, right?" Aisha looks hesitant. "How did you know that she was the one?"

Elesis laughs out loud. "I didn't. She came to me, and I accepted her offer and we moved on forwards. It was in the aftermath of Ran's death." She tries her best to look forwards and not make eye contact at all with Aisha. "I was emotionally destroyed at the time. So when Ignia came to talk and confessed, I just kind of… Gave in."

It had been surprising, considering they hadn't really gotten off to a good start when Elesis first joined the cause. Ignia was brash and fiery, and Elesis was cold and broken, and that has kept on to today. Apparently Ignia had been stuck pining, waiting for an opportunity to open her heart to Elesis for nearly two years.

And she got her opportunity, and now the two of them are happily dating and they have a beautiful daughter to raise. Except their daughter is not theirs anymore, now that she has an aunt and an uncle to take care of her.

"In all honesty, though," she continues, "the most important thing to go is let go of yourself. Get to know the person you want to love so that you don't love the wrong person, but at the same time give your love to people. And when worst comes to worst, get it over with before it impacts your future badly. You're young, which means there's a lot of time to be ruined. Make your choices, play your cards, but do it with your future in mind."

Aisha scoffs. "You're young, too," she argues. "Don't go making decisions that could destroy you in the future."

"You have freedom on your side, though." Elesis gazes down at Lilith's sleeping form. "Has she been eating well lately?"

"Yeah. I had to beg a farmer's wife for some milk to feed her, but she's been fed well these past few days," Aisha says. "I had to steal diapers from a shop, though…"

"I'm sure they understood the situation," Elesis tells her, smiling. "Thank you for taking care of my daughter. Are you going to go back to Altera soon?"

"That's the plan," Aisha replies. "Did you guys continue attacking after I, uh, blew up your base?"

Elesis chuckles. "Nah. We called it a day and left Altera. I think Karis sent a diplomat back to negotiate a peace treaty with Altera, at least for the time being. We're supposed to ignore the island for the next year, but if any of you attack us outside Altera, we're authorized to kill you." She shrugs. "You haven't attacked me today, so I guess you're in the clear for now."

"Thanks," Aisha laughs. "Um, so, do you want me to take Lilith, or…?"

Oh. Elesis had forgotten. "Just one moment," she says quietly, lifting Lilith up in her arms. Her tiny face is pale and round and pink and almost translucent in the dim light of the forest glade. There are tiny tears beneath her sleeping eyes, welling up with the power bestowed on her by her biological mother. "Goodbye, my baby," she murmurs, pressing a kiss to Lilith's tiny forehead. "Stay safe with your aunt and uncle."

She gently lowers her daughter into Aisha's waiting arms. "Take good care of her," she says, "please."

Aisha nods softly. "I will," she promises. "And Elesis? Take care of yourself." She smiles. "If you ever need a place to go, I'm sure Elsword and I will be able to give you a home for a while."

There's a flash of darkness, and then she's gone again, taking Lilith with her.

Elesis sighs. The glade feels empty, but her heart feels full. Sure, Lilith is gone again, but talking to Aisha was... Healing. Getting to know her brother again through his best friend is a good feeling.

She crosses her legs again, relaxes, and closes her eyes to meditate once more.

* * *

It's quite late in the evening when she returns to the underground base in what remains of Elder City, but there's still movement in and around the compound.

Elesis slips through a group of whispering incubi, pushes away a sobbing Hagalaz, and finally comes to a stop in front of the big table in the conference room. "What's happening?" She asks out loud.

From the other end, Scar looks up and heaves a longsuffering sigh. "Karis is back," he says, "and thankfully no longer in critical condition. She'll be covered with scars for a long time to come, unless she decides to work her succubus magic or something."

"I'm going to assume that Luciela didn't want to join the cause," Elesis says wryly.

"Well, we're not entirely sure if Luciela's against our cause, or just against Karis," he admits, "but whatever the case is, she's pretty rough about it. Her half-human boy sliced a handful of her entourage to ribbons in seconds." He winces. "According to Karis, she's gotten quite good at hand-to-hand, and she's restored her ancient form."

"Yikes." Elesis gives him a weak smile. "Is Ignia doing okay?

Scar's expression turns solemn. "Her condition is only worsening," he says quietly. "She ran a very high fever after you left. The doctor gave her a lot of medication, but the infection didn't die down too much. If this keeps up, they're planning to amputate her leg."

Elesis feels her heart sink instantly. "Can I go see her?"

"She's resting in your shared room right now." Scar pats her shoulder gently with one claw. "Be gentle with her. She's had a rough day."

She slips away from the chaos of conference room, unnoticed by the demons around her. They don't notice her even though she is the only splash of red in a sea of blue. There is too much to worry about; with the news about Luciela and whatnot. Ignia is the youngest of the generals, after all. They don't care about her.

Elesis walks into the dark room that she shares with Ignia. The curtains are drawn, but a small candle on the nightstand illuminates Ignia's sleeping face. "You can go now," Elesis says to the Kenaz sitting at her side. "Tell everyone outside to not disturb us."

Once the fire sprite leaves, Elesis locks the door and sits on the bed next to Ignia. Her forehead is warmer than usual. "That's right," she murmurs, "use your fire and fight off the infection."

Ignia's eyes blink open sleepily. "Elesis," she whispers weakly. "Where are you?"

"I'm here," Elesis says,keeping her voice level. "Ignia, I'm here."

She relaxes visibly, but her eyes are still flickering around. "They're going to take my leg off," she says. "I don't want them to take my leg off."

"I know, but you need to be strong," Elesis reminds her. "Be strong for me, okay? For me."

"For you…" Ignia closes her eyes. "For Lilith. For… for..."

Her breathing evens out as she fades back into unconsciousness. Elesis sighs and gets up.

Elesis is tired of being stuck like this. Now that Ignia's condition is getting worse, she'll be cooped up in the base with no way to go on the next campaign with the others. They've got plans to hit Sander in two weeks, and Velder in the next month. She's supposed to go war with Ignia at her side.

But Ignia is injured and possibly dying, and Elesis is either stuck fighting a war for the wrong people, or locked in a jail furnished for its willing prisoners. She has no escape from this lifestyle.

Elesis once killed demons in the name of Velder. She brought a squadron of Red Knights into battle, and they destroyed entire cohorts of demons. Aside from the glitters they killed, there was nothing she was allowed to touch - not the children that bullied others, not the people that hurt their spouses, not the stupid mayor of Elder that kept a harem in his basement.

So when a demon slaughtered her entire squadron, Elesis snapped.

She lost track of everything, and killed every living thing she came across. Blood stained her hands every day. The light faded from her eyes and left her no room for emotion.

The demons let her kill. The demons let her kill even their fighters, because the weak are not wanted in their ranks. She slaughtered mindlessly, and it gave her a purpose in life.

Elesis is different now. She no longer wants to kill mindlessly. Ara and Add don't kill mindlessly- they kill to protect each other. Elesis wants to protect someone, to have someone to protect since her brother doesn't need any protecting anymore.

And she has found someone to protect, but it's not Ignia. Ignia is strong and can protect herself, too. Lilith, her beloved daughter, is defenseless. Lilith, her beloved daughter, needs to be protected.

Elesis really didn't want to wage war on Altera in the first place. She knows their queen is a beacon of death, just like she is. The reason she fought is because they had her daughter, and she didn't want to give up Lilith without a fight.

She doesn't consider herself a mother. Mothers aren't usually murderers. But Lilith is still her daughter, regardless of where she is, and if that calls upon her to be a mother, then so be it.

What kind of mother is she to let her daughter be taken away from her? She's going to walk to Altera and find her baby again. She's going to raise her daughter in peace, as far away from the war as she possibly can.

She remembers Aisha's offer of a home, and makes up her mind.

All of her possessions are kept in a small box, which she keeps under the bed she shares with Ignia. It only contains a few small things - a few strands of her father's hair, a tiny pin that Ran gave her, the remains of an old scarf, trinkets from friends and lovers of the past. She takes out one more: an El gem pendant on a leather cord, which she slips over her head. The gem burns on her chest, but it's a burning feeling that keeps her alive, not the pain of the demons that kills her.

It only takes a few more minutes for her to pack all of Lilith's toys into a bag, and a few more after that to pack another bag of her clothes and other things. She stuff both into a large backpack, which she slings over her back.

The only thing left to do is to leave. Elesis crosses the room over to the window, lifts the curtain, and pushes open the window. There's a mild breeze, typical for a May evening in Elder.

Just as Elesis prepares to step out of the window, Ignia stirs in her sleep behind her.

Elesis knows that she shouldn't be leaving Ignia behind. She's battling a dangerous infection and possibly blood poisoning. But there's no way she'd go to live on Altera peacefully, so Elesis has to make this journey alone.

Ignia may be her girlfriend, but for Lilith's sake, she'll have to leave her behind.

She knows Ignia's not going to make it. Her condition is already deteriorating, and once she finds out Elesis is gone, she'll only get worse. There's no hope to save her at this point, but Elesis can lessen her suffering.

Elesis presses one hand to Ignia's forehead and draws upon her blood. Ignia's body jolts upwards as her life bleeds out into Elesis's hand. Her blood is fiery and red, like she was in life. It comes flooding forwards, and Elesis bathes her hand in the blood, Ignia's blood, and waits for her breathing to fade into nothingness. "Goodbye, Mavros," she whispers, smirking at the memory of their not-so humble beginnings together.

Ignia may be her girlfriend, but Lilith made her remember what it's like to love again.

So Elesis leaves the stupid demon base. She climbs out of the window and drops to the ground below, in a flurry of bags and sword and girl. She takes her first free step since she swore her loyalty to the demons, and another, and another.

The demon base is peaceful for now, but it will be alive with fury in a few hours. Ignia Mavros, former fire priestess and demon general, will be found dead, having been exsanguinated. Her former girlfriend Elesis Sieghart, the only person in Elrios who could have done the deed in such a short period of time, will be missing and gone. Karis will shriek in anger, and Scar will pound his fist into a table.

But Elesis does not look back at the demon compound. She has a goal in mind, and no one will stop her.

No one will stop her from reuniting with her daughter.

* * *

 **A/N: I HAVE A REFLECTIVE STATEMENT DUE TOMORROW THAT I FORGOT TO WRITE BC I THOUGHT IT WAS DUE TUESDAY AND I HAVE A CHEM QUIZ TMRW THAT I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING FOR**

 **REST IN PIECES MARGARITADAEMONELIX, 2001-2017**

 **aside from that, the cat is out of the bag and Lilith's heritage is finally revealed! and Elesis is out for blood... and to cuddle her baby**

 **two more chapters, just 10k in two days. can i do this? maybe, maybe not, let's see how it goes but first REFLECTIVE STATEMENT AND CHEM QUIZ**

 **~Marg**


	7. Aftermath

JAILBREAK

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Chapter 7

 _Before the grandeur of the vast sky, I might just forget everything_

 **TW: some descriptions of blood and wounds. Proceed with caution.**

The sun is shining when Aisha finally returns to Altera, late in the afternoon.

She apparates on the west-side coast of the island, stumbling out of the void and nearly dropping the baby in her arms for a moment. She hasn't eaten in a day, hasn't slept in two. She has known only salt water and Lilith and crying.

Tears streak her face and her lips are cracked, but her eyes are clear and bright. Her abdomen is covered in scars and more than a few bruises. A huge gash is weeping blood on her left shoulder and another smaller one on her leg stains the draping blankets red. Her steps are slow and sluggish, but she continues to stagger forwards, taking one painful step at a time.

Everything hurts. She wants nothing more than to sleep, to collapse in a pile, but she is holding onto precious, fragile cargo, and cannot afford to stop.

The Nasod that arrive to intercept her stand on attention when she reaches them. "State your name and purpose," one says, scanning her over. As soon as it does, it sends the information to its comrades and tells them to not shoot.

One confused Nasod raises its gun, having gotten the message late. One confused Nasod falls to the ground, broken as streams of burning plasma tear it to pieces. The bullet it shot skims past Aisha, leaving a stream of blood and broken skin across her face, but she ignores it.

The remaining Nasods trail behind her, marching with her in silence as she approaches the iron fortress.

High upon the fortress wall, a pair of blue eyes widen as their owner lowers his binoculars. "MISS EVE!" Chung yells, turning around and leaping for the staircase. "ELSWORD! EVERYONE! AISHA'S BACK!"

"Aisha's back!" Ara yelps from inside, having heard his scream first due to her supernatural animal bond. "Add, Add, wake up! Aisha's back!" She shouts happily, shaking his shoulder. "She's back!"

Under her grasp, Add groans and turns over. His wounds are healing well, and his finger is no longer swollen. "Yeah, I got it, but did you have to scream like that?"

Ara pouts. "You've been napping all afternoon, silly. It's about time you got up anyways."

Somewhere else in the fortress, Eve drops her coding and yanks the plug out of her arm. "Everyone, stop screaming," she orders calmly over the broadcasting system. "This is not a time to be acting like human children. We will go intercept her on the plains now."

Elsword is the only person who is wordless through the entire ordeal. As the rest of his new friends - his new _family_ \- babble and bicker at their astonishment, Elsword is just as wordless as Aisha. He walks in stunned silence, keeping up with Eve's long strides but not quite with Ara's excited scamper.

Aisha is back.

And she's alive.

As she comes in view over the ridge, each step slower than the last, Elsword feels a hand on his back, and turns around to Ara. "It's alright," she says, eyes twinkling kindly. "You can breathe now."

"Is this how you felt when Add came back?" He asks. "Like, just overwhelming… Everything?"

Ara laughs. "I think they call that feeling overwhelmed. But yes, that's very typical of reuniting with a loved one after mourning their disappearance." Her gaze comes to rest on Add. "I mean, it happens a lot, but you never really get used to it."

Elsword smiles weakly at her. "I feel ya."

He takes a deep breath and marches forwards, arms open. "Aisha-"

She ignores him entirely and pushes past him. Elsword turns just in time to watch her shove the baby in a very confused Ara's arms. "Aisha, what-"

"You need to take care of her for now," says the other girl, voice cracking with exhaustion. "You're her only living family."

"Hey, wait up," Add says, voice rising defensively, "what's this supposed to mean?"

Aisha opens her mouth, but her eyes close and her arms go limp. Elsword wraps an arm around her waist, holding her up as she falls. "I think we need to get indoors so Aisha can sit down," he says quietly. "Eve, would you mind giving me a hand and help hold her up?"

"Of course," Eve says, rushing forwards to let Aisha drape her uninjured arm over her shoulders. "I will send for a transport platform with a chair, so you can sit."

The platform comes flying through the sky within a minute, and they all load on, with Aisha collapsing into the chair the moment it arrives. "Is there anything we should get you?" Eve asks, smoothing her hair down. Aisha's iconic pigtails are gone, her hair falling in a scraggly wave around her shoulders that Eve struggles to comb her sleek fingers through.

"... Water," Aisha manages. "Maybe some food. And something for my shoulder."

Only then does Elsword really notice the blood that stains her sleeve. "Oh god," he mumbles, trying to think of something that could help but failing to find anything. "Uh... Maybe I could heat up a sword and cauterize the wound?"

Aisha shakes her head. "It's alright," she mouths.

On the other side of the platform, Ara is singing softly as she rocks the baby in her arms. Add watches curiously as she closes her eyes and sways from side to side, her voice haunting and calming all at once. The baby in her arms makes a soft noise in her sleep.

Once they reach the fortress again, Elsword carefully picks Aisha up, steps off the floating platform, and gently puts her down on the wheelchair-looking thing that Ara's three little Nasod friends have brought. "Thank you," she says hoarsely, accepting the glass of water that another Nasod hands to her. "I'll explain everything as best as I can."

As they grab first aid supplies from the cabinet outside Ara and Add's room and start to clean Aisha's wounds, she takes a careful sip of water to ease her parched throat. "The baby's name is Lilith," she says quietly, voice still not fully recovered. "And in a way, she is your niece, Elsword."

He narrows his eyes as he pours a bit of isopropyl alcohol onto a cotton pad. "But not biologically."

"Not biologically," Aisha agrees. "Your sister adopted her after her birth parents both passed on. But you know whose biological niece she is, though?"

She raises her good arm shakily, finger pointing at a single target. Elsword follows it, and his eyes widen as he realizes she's pointing at Ara. "Ara, Lilith's father was your brother," she says, voice trembling. "Upon his death, he entrusted her to his second in command, Elesis."

Ara's jaw drops, but she closes her mouth again quickly and manages a weak smile. "Somehow, I'm not really surprised," she admits. "Aren was always quite popular with the town girls back home in Fahrman. Who's her mother?"

"Sasha Vasilev, former priestess of the Water El," Aisha says.

The room goes silent instantly. Elsword continues to soundlessly clean Aisha's wounds, holding her arm gently so he can press the alcohol-soaked cotton pad to her huge gash. "Yeah." Aisha winces as the alcohol stings her cut. "I don't know the exact details, but Elesis said that Ran had been in a relationship with Sasha for a long time as Aren."

"Wait, you met my sister?" Elsword suddenly gasps. "Wha-"

"She was nice enough to not kill me," Aisha says, smiling. "Anyways, she said that Sasha used her power as the Water El priestess to fortify the Hall of Water when the demons invaded Hamel." She squeezes her eyes shut. "One of the demon generals was able infiltrate the temple, though, and then..." She shakes her head. "That's why we found Sasha dead at the bottom of the pool in the Hall of Water."

"Oh." Elsword tries to swallow down his sudden guilt, finding no relief. "So then she died and left Lilith to the demons."

"And then my brother passed on, and Lilith's custody went to Elesis," Ara finishes, looking down at Lilith's tiny little face. "I'm sorry, little one. Auntie Ara's going to do her best to take care of you."

"Wait, what does that make me?" Add asks, reaching out gingerly to brush a finger across Lilith's tiny hand. "Uncle Add?"

"Not yet," Ara says, smiling at him. "Maybe soon."

Aisha stares blankly at the ground. "I know Lilith is going to have a better childhood here, raised by people who love her and those who can help her with her budding abilities, but…" Her voice falters. "I still feel so bad about taking her away from Elesis. I mean, the whole time while we were talking, she held Lilith, and when I left with Lilith it seemed like she was ready to give her daughter up so she could have a better future."

"Then we'll just have to take care of Lilith, unless Elesis comes to claim her," Eve says quietly.

They're all silent for a while. "So yeah, she's just as much your niece as she is Ara's," Aisha concludes, smiling weakly at Elsword. "I… am exhausted. Would you guys mind if I passed out in the middle of the conference room?"

"I would absolutely mind," Eve says, standing up. "You need to lie down, and there is no place for you to do that here." She turns to Elsword. "Please take Aisha to her new room. I am of the belief that she will want to see it before she inevitably passes out from exhaustion."

Elsword's eyes immediately light up. He'd forgotten about the new room. "On it!"

Aisha raises an eyebrow as he gets up to push her wheelchair forwards. "New room?"

"Yeah! After we found Add, he suggested that we should probably settle down in Altera, or use it as a base of operations like they're doing," he says. "Well, he and Ara are probably going to settle down permanently here anyways, considering… Anyways, Eve emptied out some old storage rooms and moved some stuff in and out, and we spent a day refurbishing it so you can stay there!"

He stops in front of a door. He's really quite proud of the sign he made for the door - it's black and in the shape of a bat, with _Aisha_ written in his best printing across the sign in a kind violet. He pushes open the door with his foot, and pushes Aisha inside.

She looks over the lilac walls, the cabinet of writing supplies, the books that line each of the seven huge bookcases. "Where'd you get all this?" She asks, brushing one hand over the velvety bed. "Did you have to pop into Velder for this?"

"Actually, we just recycled stuff," Elsword admits. "Like with Eve's magic food machine, but it spat out books and stuff instead. We were trying to feed it some of the demon blood dirt, so we could reconstruct it into better soil, but then Eve said she found the blueprint for a book lost to time, so we made that for fun. We'd already made the room and furnished it with nice things, so it was just a matter of shelving things properly."

He averts his gaze and rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "Other than that, is there anything else you need right now?"

Aisha shifts uncomfortably in her seat. "Do you mind, uh… Helping me out of this wheelchair?"

Elsword purses his lips and tries to pretend his face isn't flaming red as he slips one hand behind her back and one under her knees, and hoists her onto the bed. She's shivering with cold, and honestly, he doesn't blame her. She's been hopping all over Elrios with her abdomen exposed. There's no way she's not cold. "There's a spare blanket over there," he says awkwardly. "Do you want me to bring it over?"

She exhales weakly. "Yes please." Her hands linger on his for a moment before she takes the blanket and wraps it around herself. "Thanks."

They sit on the bed in silence, she with her legs crossed and he touching the floor with his feet for support. "I went so many places," Aisha finally says, gaze dropped into her lap. "The demon base was in Velder, so when I teleported, I went all the way to Ruben again.

"It's terrible. Everything is so dead and bleak. Adams let me stay the night in his bar, but I could barely find enough for Lilith to eat, let alone myself." Her fingers are shaking. Elsword reaches his hand out to hold hers, and she seems to calm down enough to speak again. "I knew I couldn't stay in one place for long, though, so I left Ruben the next day.

"I spent a night in some ruins in Bethma, and then I went to Feita, and then two days stuck in a forest near Elder. I found your sister in that forest," she says. "She was meditating, but I think she heard me approach, because she just- just _sprang up_ and pointed her sword at me."

She weaves her fingers between his, taking deep breaths to quell her restless mind. "We talked for maybe an hour, tops? And she told me everything about Lilith, and then she told me…" She exhales loudly. "Anyways, I left Elder as soon as I could. But then in the next town I visited, they said that the Crimson Avenger had killed her girlfriend, and was out for blood."

Her eyes are wide with fear and curiosity. "She's coming here," she says quietly. "Some of the people said she was coming here to duel her brother. Elesis is coming to fight you, Elsword."

Elsword thinks about it for a moment. Their duel in the dying moments of the siege was… Intense, to say the least. It didn't hurt physically, but it felt like a blow to the heart nonetheless. Even with every pleading question that Elsword threw at her, Elesis was silent and stoic through the whole battle. He needs a lot of those questions answered.

He also noticed that she hadn't tapped into her innate magic during the duel. What kind of new powers is she hiding?

"I think it'd be nice to fight her again," he says, smirking. "I've missed sparring with my sister."

Still, the other bit of news is rather alarming. _Elesis killed her own girlfriend? So is Ignia dead?_ More questions flood his mind and a terrible lump of guilt forms in his throat, but he shakes it aside and forces himself to focus on Aisha. "Are you feeling okay, though?" He asks, squeezing her hand a little tighter.

"Yeah." Aisha tries to give him a smile, but it dies quickly and is replaced by pain. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" Elsword blurts. "I should be apologizing to you, for not finding you the moment you left."

"And that's exactly what I've got to apologize for," she says. "I left you guys right when you needed me the most, and I nearly got myself and Lilith killed a million times while doing it." She shakes her head, gently detangling her fingers from his. "I'm super glad that you guys found Add. I mean, Ara's so much happier now, but I should have been there, helping you guys. I don't deserve to be here, sharing your victory."

"No!" Elsword grabs onto her hand quickly as it slips away. "You deserve to be here more than any of us. You were ready to sacrifice yourself to keep all of us safe," he says, a little more quietly. "I don't deserve to know someone that selfless."

His words trail off into silence. They sit on that bed, she with her legs crossed and he with his feet on the ground, their hands linked together. Elsword opens his mouth a few times, scrambling for words, but nothing comes out. Aisha's eyes are twinkling. He doesn't know what to say to them.

"Thank you," Elsword finally manages, "for coming back to me."

Before he can think about it, his pounding heart takes over the reins and he leans forwards and _holy shit_ , he presses a kiss to Aisha's cheek. " _I'msorryI'llgonow-_ " He blurts, tearing himself away before Aisha inevitably slaps him -

But then their fingers catch, and then she's dragging him back to the bed to softly peck him on the cheek. "Thank you for waiting for me to come back," she whispers, pushing him away gently with a smile.

Elsword's mind is racing at a million miles per hour, he can barely breathe, _he thought his puppy crush died years ago_ , but Aisha presses a finger to his lips before he can say anything. "Little steps," she says. "We still need to take little steps before we can take the big leap. This is the first step."

"Yeah." Elsword feels like there's a frog in his throat, but at least he finds the strength to smile back. "Yeah."

"I'm gonna take a nap, because I haven't slept in literal days," she says. "Go talk to the others and tell them thank you for making this place so nice."

Elsword doesn't leave until she falls fast asleep, and even then he lingers behind to gently kiss her forehead and tuck her under the duvet. "Sleep tight," he whispers, smiling as he packs up the wheelchair and leaves Aisha's room behind.

The only people left in the conference room are Lilith, Chung (who has said that he has never handled a human child before) and Eve (who didn't know humans had children to begin with before Lilith arrived on Altera). "Yo, where are Ara and Add?" Elsword asks.

Eve looks up from studying Lilith with mournful eyes. "Bathroom," she says. "Add coughed up another blood clot, and Ara felt sick to her stomach upon seeing the result."

"Please, I am _begging you_ ," Chung pleads, holding out his arms away from his rather uncomfortable-looking sitting position. "Please take this child away from me before I drop her."

Elsword laughs as he lets Chung place Lilith - his _niece_ \- in his arms. "I'll rescue you, little Princess," he jokes. "Do you two even know anything about kids?"

"No," Chung quips. "We'd probably get her killed if you left her with us for too long."

"Please don't cause any accidents," Eve says as Elsword turns to leave the room. "She doesn't seem to enjoy being bounced up and down, despite Chung's suggestion that it is something small human children enjoy."

"That's because you're made of metal, and it's uncomfortable being bounced up and down on metal!"

Elsword allows himself a laugh as he shifts Lilith in his arms. "Someday, you'll grow up and find out that your Uncle Chung really doesn't know anything about kids," he hums, walking down the hallway. "And that your Aunt Eve is only marginally better, if only because she stays away from you."

Lilith's eyes are startlingly grey and bright, like sparkling steel. She mushes her tiny puffy lips together and blows a messy bubble. "Adel and Agatha? Oh yeah, they're much better than taking care of kids than we are," he says. "Ponggos make really good food, although I haven't had anything more than their pastries yet…" He licks his lips. "They make super good pastries. I hope you get to eat a ton when you grow up."

The door to the bathroom suddenly opens in front of him, causing him to nearly drop Lilith in surprise. Ara and Add step out, the former looking dazed but very sour and the latter more concerned than anything. "Are you guys okay?" Elsword asks. "Especially you, Ara. You look like you've just thrown up."

"I have," she offers grimly. "That was awful and not something I would like to experience again." Her eyes soften as her gaze lands on Lilith. "How's our little niece?"

"She looks pretty great to me," Elsword says, watching as Lilith's pudgy baby hand reaches up to hold Ara's slim finger. "I just liberated her from Chung and Eve."

Add snorts. "Don't you mean you just liberated them from her?"

"That too," Elsword agrees. "They don't know how to… children."

"To be fair, neither do we." Ara smiles at him. "So, did you do what you had to get done?"

Elsword smiles as he tugs Lilith away gently. "I think I did."

Ara dips her head. "Then I hope things will go well for you two."

As she hobbles down the hallway towards the conference room, holding onto Add's arm for support, Elsword looks at the tiny baby in his arms. Lilith is so small, so fragile, that he can hardly believe that she's even living, let alone his niece. He's scared that she might crumble to porcelain shards in his hands at any moment.

But she doesn't, and he sighs in relief.

"C'mon, Lilith," he says. "Uncle Elsword is going to show you around your new home."

* * *

The fortress becomes livelier with every day that passes, and Elsword takes it all in without a second glance.

He wakes up to Chung's knocking on the door, and tosses himself out of bed to comb his hair back and say _hello, good morning_ to Lilith. Breakfast is actual wholesome food, now that Eve's emergency shipment of foods and seeds has come in from Velder. A small flock of chickens that came with the shipment supplies eggs. Eve has also slapped Elsword for trying to catch one to make fried chicken.

Aisha's slaps might hurt, but _yikes_ , Eve has the steel hand of the Alteran throne and man does that hand hurt.

The Ponggos start to burrow down into the earth, planning to build their new village around the Core. Aida starts her new shop with jewelry and trinkets made of succubus horns and the chest cores of Waldos. Agatha moves her shop into the Core, where she helps build and sharpen the Nasod to perfection. Amos comes upstairs much too often to borrow books from Aisha, to the point where she decides it might be a better idea to just build a separate library.

Aisha's smaller wounds heal quickly with Amos's herbal knowledge and healing, and the gash on her shoulder closes up into a long scar within days, one that doesn't heal properly and has to be covered up with her sleeve. Elsword kisses the scar one day, after he cleans it after dinner. He doesn't quite see Ara's mysterious but warm smile.

Ara seems so much happier with Add back at her side, and the day he presents her with a sparkling golden ring ("to make it official," he'd said) she actually breaks into laughter and tears. His finger hasn't quite healed yet, and his splint kind of gets in the way of slipping the ring on her finger, but they're so happy that they glow, and Elsword is so happy for them.

Eve works on Nexus, but she also stops to play with Lilith whenever she can. She pops into the new nursery after digging with the Ponggos sometimes, and Aisha freaks out and wipes her down with a cotton washcloth before she can pick up Lilith. She makes a point of taking notes on everything Lilith does, and asking whoever's on baby duty why Lilith blows bubbles with her lips, and why those bubbles go flying, and why her eyes sometimes suddenly flash in dark indigo.

Chung does his best to support her, and recalls all that he can of the Hamelian Freiturnier design for Nexus. He's a surprisingly good artist, and designs a set of Hamelian Nasod armor in white and black and blue and pink. He sews tiny socks and onesies for Lilith, deft hands working alongside Agatha's so they can keep the baby warm.

Good things happen when Elsword gets to hold his niece. He takes her on walks around the fortress, around Altera, and with Eve's permission, around the Core. His dad once said that babies need to see the world and hear it as much as they can, so he talks to Lilith as he walks, explains to her the cliff where her Uncle-to-be Add blew up a gazillion demons, shows the room where Aunt Eve is building Nexus, even lets her sit in Chung's Freiturnier for a cute photo.

He brings her to Aisha's room sometimes, and they find a book (or have one printed if they can't find it) to read out loud to her. Aisha likes to tell fairy tales, while Elsword prefers action stories with lots of pictures. Pretty soon, Aisha's personal shelves are just as stocked with picture books as they are grimoires and manuscripts.

Aisha gives him life, too. She still helps him with his incantations, but instead of sitting across from him, she'll sit squished up beside him, fingers intertwined in his as she scribbles down notes. They haven't moved further than the sudden peck on the cheek, but something has changed about the way they speak to and look at each other, even though it's the same as it was all along.

They don't need to speak to each other as often as they used to. Instead of talking to one another, they express their affection in other ways. She sings sometimes when they're laying in the sun on the fortress ramparts, and he'll take her hand and kiss her fingertips. As they play with Lilith, they talk about a future in which there's peace, enough peace for them to live happily again, for Lilith to have a childhood like they once had.

"I want to see her grow up happily," Elsword muses, letting Lilith's tiny hands pat his face as she lies on his chest. She's gotten bigger since they brought her back to Altera, mainly because they have actual baby food to give her now. She likes everyone, and everyone likes her, except maybe Add because she threw up on his back. "If my sister isn't the one to raise her, then I'll take care of her in her place."

"She's a good baby," Aisha sighs contentedly. "But for the record, I don't think I could actually raise a kid. I mean, babysitting Lilith is fun, and very relaxing, but…" She shudders. "Childbirth does not sound fun."

She looks down to smile at Elsword. "Besides, we're still young. We have all the time in the world, and if we're going to be doing anything now, we should have the future in mind," she says, like she's recalling something. "Let's not do anything that'll ruin that future for us now."

Elsword laughs softly, as so to not shake Lilith off his chest. "Whatever milady wishes."

* * *

Chung knocks on the door with considerable alarm one morning, and Elsword immediately shoots out of bed.

"It's Elesis, isn't it," are the first words out of his mouth.

Chung nods gravely. "She's asking to be let into the castle," he reports. "Eve is weighing her options right now. If you want to let her in, you're gonna have to convince her to not blow your sister up."

Elsword launches himself out of bed, only barely brushes his hair back with his fingers, scrambles into his clothes and armor without a second thought. He pushes open the door and nearly runs into Aisha. "Elesis," he blurts.

"What are you waiting for?" She demands, eyes sparkling and alive despite having only woken up a moment before. Her hair is still down, her shoes aren't on quite right, and there's a twitch in her eye that won't go away. "Get going!"

They hurtle down the hallway, rushing to the conference room where Eve, Ara and Add are currently standing over the holographic display of Elesis, and Adel stands just to the side, holding Lilith. "Eve, you gotta let her in!" Elsword pleads, braking himself against a chair.

"As much as I would like to…" Eve winces. "She is still labelled as an enemy of the Alteran empire. I cannot let her in until we are sure she is not here to harm us."

"We could always drop a bomb and wait for her to react," Add mutters.

"NO!" Elsword takes a breath to compose himself. "Aisha, tell them what you heard about what Elesis did."

"When I was travelling through a few towns," Aisha explains quickly, "I heard rumours that Elesis had killed Ignia and deserted the demons, and was out looking for her brother to meet him in a duel."

The conference room goes silent. "She's here for me, guys," Elsword says quietly. "I'll go out to meet her."

"It's my fault." Everyone turns to look at Aisha, who stands alone with a sheepish expression. "When I met her in the forest, I told her… That if she was ever in need of a home, Elsword and I would probably be able to provide one for her."

Eve looks contemplative, but remains silent despite having all eyes on her. "Let her in," she decides, "but have your weapons at the ready. I've seen her fight; it'll take all of us to take her down if she decides to turn on us."

She presses a button on her command console, and the holographic image of Elesis fades. "The door is opening," she announces. "Get ready to intercept her."

When Elesis finally steps into the conference room, backpack hanging limply off her shoulders and sword trailing behind her, Elsword is so shocked that he drops his sword.

Her face is pale and almost lifeless, but tiny streaks of red across her skin are a reminder that she's alive and living. Her hair is tied back loosely with that same bit of red fabric. Her gloves, which had been black the day they last fought, are dyed a bloody crimson.

She looks just as tired as Elsword felt before he came to Altera.

No one says anything. No one dares to move. Elesis stands in the doorframe, eyes flickering back and forth as she laps up all their bright faces. Elsword finds his breath catching in his chest as his sister's gaze locks on him.

Suddenly, she drops to the ground, and he's almost tempted to catch her, but she's just kneeling, almost grovelling. "I am sorry," Elesis whispers. "I am sorry for seeking to destroy your island and its people. On behalf of the demons, and my late partner Ignia, I am sorry. Please forgive me."

The room falls back into silence. Elsword opens his mouth, searches for words, and finds none, only managing to convey his sorrow to her with his eyes.

Then Ara yelps as Adel moves to shift Lilith to her arms. "Come here, my child," he says warmly, moving forwards to wrap Elesis in a warm, fuzzy hug. She goes tense for a moment, but eventually gives in. "I forgive you, on behalf of the Ponggo peoples on Altera. No one is innocent in war, but I believe that you should not be considered guilty of those crimes."

"..." Elesis closes her eyes, but brings one hand up onto Adel's back. "Thank you, sir."

The next person to move, surprisingly, is Aisha. She kneels down next to Elesis, joining her in the hug. "Welcome home," she says softly, glancing back at Elsword. "We've been waiting for you."

And then Lilith has been passed into his arms again, and Chung and Ara have joined the pile with Add standing awkwardly to the side. They're all saying soft, happy things, because instead of coming fight, Elesis is here to join them. Eve asks about something to do with the demons' war plans, and Elesis says yes, she'll tell them everything about them, so that they can stop the invasions on Velder and Sander coming in the next few months.

Elsword stands with his niece in his arms, motionless but unable to stop the smile on his face. It's the first time in _ten years_ that he's spoken properly to his sister, after all. They've got an awful lot to catch up on.

Elesis looks up, a serene smile on her face, and her eyes lock on his.

"Hey, sis," he says. "I took care of your kid while you were gone."

Her smile, however weak and frail it is, makes her look radiant. "Thank you," she says, reaching out of the hug pile. Elsword steps forwards to put Lilith in her arms. "Thank you."

For the first time in nearly a decade, Elesis Sieghart allows herself to cry.

* * *

"After the attack, she didn't mentioned her knee wound until it was almost too late, and it got infected," Elesis says quietly. "I knew she wouldn't make the journey here with me, and she'd only get worse from there on out, so I did the best I could to lessen her pain."

They're all sitting crosslegged across the floor of Lilith's nursery, watching as Elesis plays with her daughter. She'd brought an entire bag of toys and clothes from the demon base, all Lilith's favourite things. "Ignia was a good person," she continues. "I think she just… broke. Snapped, really, after Sasha died. She didn't deserve to die in pain."

"That's good," Ara comments offhandedly. Her back still hasn't quite healed yet, so she's sitting with her back against the wall to keep it straight. "I don't think anyone really deserves to die in pain."

Elesis nods. "After that, I took some things from our room and I just left," she says. "I walked from Elder to Bethma, and then to Velder, and then I built myself a boat to get to Altera. The longest part of the journey was really just building the boat."

They all laugh lightly at that. Lilith blows a bubble, which then floats into the air and splatters against the ceiling. "Yeah, more often than not I wished I had Lilith with me," Elesis admits, "but her magic is really volatile, so I'm not sure she'd be very helpful."

"I'm working on documenting that," Aisha pipes in. "Her demonic magic seems to be less scary than her Water El magic, but if my calculations are correct, she'll be powerful enough to sink the island of Altera, or defend it with powerful tsunamis, in her magical prime." She smiles brightly. "Of course, that won't be until she's well in her twenties and thirties, so in theory she won't be sinking any islands yet."

"Thank goodness," Eve says, "it would be rather embarrassing to have my empire taken down by a three-month old human child."

"I'd be alarmed," Elesis admits. "Kids at this age shouldn't have too much magical potential."

The door to the nursery suddenly opens, and Elesis flinches, hands flying out to shield Lilith. "Breakfast is ready," Add announces loudly, gingerly stepping around the plush animals to help Ara to her feet. "We made pancakes. Chung also made ham with the machine."

Elesis raises an eyebrow. "Machine?"

"Oh man, the machine!" Ara's eyes light up. "Eve built a machine that can decompose the chemical structure of anything and turn it into food! We lived off food from the machine during the siege."

"The bacon never quite turns out right," Elsword sighs. "I hope Chung managed to make it at least taste good."

"It's not great, but it's still edible," Add supplies, which Elsword knows really means _this is the best bacon I have tasted since the fall of Hamel_.

One by one, they all clear out, until it's just Elesis, Elsword and Lilith. Lilith squirms as her mother scoops her up, blankets and all, but doesn't cry out. "She really is a good baby," Elsword murmurs, dangling a pink plush Phoru in front of her. "I took her on walks through Altera, and she hardly ever cried."

"Is that so?" Elesis says, smiling. "Then I must thank you for taking Lilith to see the world she'll grow up in."

It's not much of a statement, but Elsword's heart fills with hope. "Does that mean you're staying in Altera?"

"I can't really go back to the demons, but…" She shrugs, which is kind of hard when your hands are occupied with a tiny child. "You know I can't stay still for long. I'll probably be in and out of Altera hunting down the remaining demon generals, but this will be Lilith's home."

Her voice really has changed. It's no longer filled with the excitement she had when she left Ruben, ten years ago, but instead a quiet, exhausted peacefulness. It's still raggedy like she hasn't spoken much in the past few years, but the way she murmurs to Lilith is more than enough to tell him that she's still his sister.

"Where have you been, all these years?" He asks.

Elesis looks him right in the eye. "Hell," she croaks. "I've seen hell on earth, and it is _terrible_." She smiles. "One of these days, I'll tell you the whole story. How about you? Where have you and Aisha been wandering off to? What have you learned?"

"I found a patron spirit," he says. Unfortunately, Conwell's not at his side at the moment - holding Lilith while a spirit scabbard rumbles on your hip can be an _experience_. "And Aisha started tutoring me in magic. And-"

"Here's my idea," Elesis interjects. "Don't tell me anything. _Show me_ how much you've learned. Do you think Eve will let us have a sword fight in the field?"

Elsword shrugs. "Maybe. But after breakfast."

Both their stomachs growl in unison, and they laugh. "After breakfast sounds good."

* * *

Conwell gets very serious the moment Elesis steps onto the field they've determined to be their arena.

 _The girl's abilities do not scare me,_ he says in that subconscious hum of his. _As long as you are not hit directly, you will not suffer major damage. However, she is inherently still your sister. You are emotionally attached to her, and if things go down like they did in the Hall of Water, you may not be standing at the end of this battle._

"We're not fighting to kill, Connie," Elsword mutters. "Besides, the others are watching. If she kills me, they hurt Lilith."

 _Stop that with giving me ridiculous names. Do you think your friends will really be able to hurt your "niece"?_

"Hey, friendly reminder that I'm still her brother," he says. "Just trust me, okay? I actually kind of think I know what I'm doing this time."

 _What a relief_.

He rolls his eyes and raises his own sword, drawing upon power from the primordial scabbard to fuel him. He's not going to break out a second sword just yet, because he knows Elesis has seen that and he needs the strength for other tricks.

Elesis narrows her eyes, gripping the handle of her sword with both hands. "En garde," she says.

Elsword only gets a split second to think before she's charging at him, hurtling towards him at an alarming speed. He exhales, widening his stance and bracing himself for impact.

Except her sword swing lands right in front of him, and then he's sailing through the air on a tower of pain. Someone screams from below, and then he's falling, falling again, but he's able to catch himself right before he hits the ground.

He lands safely and immediately turns around. Elesis is running towards him again, sword extended and pulsing with dark energy. The peaceful look on her face has been replaced with a smug smile, like she'd expected this to happen.

In that moment, Elsword realizes she's expecting him to jump out of the way, or block her attack with a parry.

So instead, he points his sword towards her. "Conwell!" He yells, and immediately feels the scabbard hum with energy. "I summon thee, blade! Infinity Chaser!"

An arcane symbol opens up behind him, shining and bright, and out of its depths come a million blades of Conwell. It stops Elesis right in her tracks, forcing her to put up her sword just to shield herself from the endless barrage of blades.

Hey, they don't call Elsword the Infinity Sword for nothing.

The moment the arcane circle dies, he launches himself at her again, drawing another steel sword out of thin air. She parries both of his swords off with her own, pushing him back a few metres with a grunt. "You're getting good, squirt," she chuckles, her face becoming dangerously pale. "But now it's my turn to shine."

The blood literally drains out of her body and flows out through her fingertips, coating her blade entirely. Elsword barely has time to raise his swords as a shield before she whirls around and throws it as a spinning saw blade. It screeches through the air before making full impact with both his swords, nearly pushing him out of the arena and leaving him dizzy and out of breath.

He looks down to his arm, where a thin trickle of blood seeps out of a cut that the bloody saw blade left. Slowly but surely, it leaves him entirely, joining the mass that Elesis now wields. "Surprise," she says. "What kind of skills did you think I was hiding when I fought you at the end of the siege?"

Elsword drops his materialized sword to shake his arm out, fighting the energy that's being drained out of his body. He's losing strength, losing blood, but not losing hope. "What kind of skills do you think I'm still hiding?" He snarks in reply, raising his own sword in the air. "I summon thee, blade!"

There's no time to think of a new spell, but Conwell resonates in him and gives him the words to make it a whole spell. He makes full eye contact with Elesis for a moment before shouting the second half of the incantation. "BLADE RAIN!"

An arcane buzz hums through the Alteran morning as a shadow descends upon them all in the form of a giant vessel. It drops with a thundering _boom_ , implanting itself into the ground and letting its guards down, signalling that it's ready to release.

Eve gets the message and quickly puts up a electronic shield around the others before the vessel explodes. Swords go flying in every direction, and the world goes white.

When the swords clear, when Elsword's vision clears, when Eve finally deems it safe to drop her shield, Elsword is standing over his sister, tip of his blade at her throat.

The only sound that remains on the Alteran plain is Lilith's soft babbling.

Then Elesis coughs awkwardly, and Elsword moves his sword back so she can breathe. The silence was starting to get weird, and he's thankful that she gets up immediately, with no signs of wounds aside from tiny white scars that aren't even scars - just scratches, really. She pushes herself to her feet, smiling brightly. It's not the same grin from their childhood, but Elsword knows that it fits his sister just fine.

Elesis sticks her hand out to him, clearly intending for him to shake it. "That was a good duel," she says. "You've gotten better."

"And you too, Elsa," Elsword replies, shaking her hand like a fair opponent. Unexpectedly, she tugs him forwards by the hand and pulls him into a hug.

He shook her hand because she was his opponent, but now, he hugs her back, because she's his sister.

It's been ten years.

* * *

 **A/N: i've been typing so much that my fingers hurt**

 **technically if i wanted to end my nanowrimo here i could bc i've reached my word quota but since i have one more day and an epilogue planned i'm gonna keep torturing myself**

 **in other news i survived my seminar reflection and my chem quiz... kinda but basically i'm not screwed for anything anymore**

 **also i'm two hours and fifteen minutes away from officially seeing my precious daughter Lu in her third job! her new design is so nice and it fits so well with my plans for her in Blink! i'm so happy that i dug my sketchbook out of the void and drew her during french today**

 **i'm tired so expect the epilogue tmrw!**

 **~Marg**


	8. The Smallest Happiness

JAILBREAK

By MargaritaDaemonelix

Epilogue: The Smallest Happiness

 _Even if everything my whole being was decimated, it wouldn't be too bad, because I already have all I ever wanted._

In the winter of Altera, a few months into the near future, a queen will stand victorious over her healing empire.

She won't be alone, though. Her friends stand by her side, will stand by her side until their bones give in and the earth crumbles beneath their feet. They will still be tired, but by supporting each other at every ordeal, they'll find the strength to keep pushing forwards.

Hidden deep within her island empire, there is a small room that is filled with light and love. Beautiful winter light filters in through the glass windows, some of the few in the entire Core. A surreal sense of timelessness lingers in the air, even though dust rises every so often with the winter wind that seeps in.

It was in this room, thirteen thousand years ago, that the queen was coronated, and all her predecessors before her. And in a few months from now, it will be in this room that her dear friends will have their wedding.

Eve will have built an altar and an arch of beautiful artificial roses, in red and white like crimson blood on pure snow. Ara will have spent months talking to Aida about the construction of her dress, and gosh, if it'll cover things up. Add will have been fussed over by Chung for a solid month over his suit, how it _must_ be perfect and crisp and unwrinkled.

Elesis will lead Ara down the aisle, because she was a sister to her brother and therefore is her sister now. Bob, Kevin and Stuart will carry her train, and stand protectively beside her and Add as they come together in front of the altar, hands joined and hearts full of life. And as the queen of Altera and their best friend, Eve will stand before them, ready to officiate.

Elsword and Aisha will sit together in the few remaining seats in the room, alongside Aida and Adel and Agatha and Amos. Lilith will be a little older and able to sit up by herself, and maybe she'll even babble from her seat in her uncle's lap and point her plump finger towards her mother as she returns to her seat. They too will be clothed in white, like a cloud of snow fairies awaiting the coming of the snow king and queen.

It will be the first time they'll have a chance to hold the wedding ceremony. They will have had stopped the demons' march on Velder, and subsequently the march on Sander as well. Elesis will have exploited every dirty detail she knows of the demons, and they will use all of this information to tear the base in Elder to pieces. Karis and Scar and the remaining demon generals will go into hiding, bringing along their forbidden magic and terrible weapons.

But hope will remain. The fighting will have finally cleared enough for Add and Ara to hold their small wedding in this tiny room in the depths of Altera. Velder will have destroyed an invasion before it even arrived, and the Caluso tribe will have protected Sander from its demonic assailants. Both the bride and the groom will be covered in scars and bruises when they stand at the altar, but it doesn't put a scar on their love for each other.

She will straighten her not-quite healed back and put on a dazzling smile, and he will hold her pale hands in his broken ones. And when they exchange their vows and slip the thin golden rings onto each other's fingers, they'll look like they're glowing white gold in their happiness.

In that moment, despite all the fighting outside, that tiny room in Altera will be a beacon of hope, a light in the darkness for all those who seek the light. It will be home to a future, for it will be the first time in nearly a year that any of them feel truly at peace, and the first time in the nine years since Eve's coronation that the room has been home to such life.

Ara will toss her bouquet of red roses and orange blossoms aside, and Aisha will _nearly_ catch it, fumbling with the petals for just a moment before it leaves her fingers and lands in Elesis's lap. It will leave a shower of red and white petals all over Elsword's head, and they will laugh over it and pick the petals out, one by one.

There will be more life, of course. Weeks after the wedding, there will be more children to join Lilith. The day Nexus is activated for the first time, there will be a party, and everyone will have champagne to toast except Eve, and Ara, and Elsword. He will have the same icy gold eyes as Eve, but the way his hair flies across his face as he plays in the field with Lilith will be all too reminiscent of Chung.

And then the twins will join them soon after Nexus, bright and very much different and alike all at once. Yin will take after Add's sarcasm and cunning, but retains his curious nature, and Yang will be more bashful and passionate like Ara. They'll play happily as their parents watch in joy, and laughter will go around on all sides.

The children will not be the only newcomers to Altera. There will be new allies, too. Old friends and enemies alike will join them in due time. Not all of them will get along with each other, but the children will give them hope for the future. Everyone will stop everything they do as the little ones run through, spreading joy and laughter everywhere.

Elesis will never forget her time as a demon general. She'll never forget Ran, or Ignia, but she'll move on from them. Someday, she'll find a new lover who makes Lilith just as happy as she makes her. Someday, she'll be able to sleep soundly without waking to terrible visions of salt water and losing her daughter all over again.

Elsword and Aisha will stand together as they once did, just like the children on the battlefield. In the daytime, they'll fight at each other's side, visiting Lilith and the others together. Late at night, when all the world is asleep, they'll hold each other until the nightmares go away. They are still inseparable, after al - as almost-lovers, as rivals, as allies, as best friends.

So when Ara lets go of her bouquet, and it flies just out of Aisha's hands, they won't mind. They'll still stand up to applaud and cheer as Ara and Add rush together for their first kiss as a married couple, the one they've needed since they first met in that dingy bar in Bethma all that time ago.

Sure, they're just tired young people, but they have hope and they will have hope, and that means a future to look forwards to.

* * *

 **A/N: wow how the month flies by**

 **my left hand is sore and will probably be sore for the next month but I WON NANOWRIMO and now i'm gonna go rest bc i am exhausted and i have two essays, a lab and a presentation to do**

 **i've left hints for future parts of the series all over this fic, so be sure to wait for those if you enjoyed Jailbreak! the next part of the Infernal Jukebox series should be either _Crimson_ or _A Dance of Sinners_. stay tuned for both!**

 **many thanks to everyone who made it this far, and a special thanks to all those who left reviews along the way!**

 **and now back to our regularly scheduled programming**

 **~MargaritaDaemonelix**


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